Month: March 2023

RRL (Double RL) Officer Chinos

Review Ben Brooks

I had been told that these pants were hard to explain, but decidedly the best chinos you could buy on the market. Not that they are stand out feature by feature better — but that they are nearly perfect and there’s some intangible attribute to them which is hard to describe. At $245 a pair, for full cotton pants with no stretch — they better be the best. They are, after all, just cotton chinos.

I bought my first pair in khaki, then another in olive, then a sale caused another purchase for a second olive pair, and then I snagged a pair in navy. Because, quite honestly, these are the best pants I own.

So yeah, I’ll try to explain why…

Materials

Simply listed as “heavy cotton twill” these are 100% cotton pants which will fade in color over time. The idea is that these are quite literally the type of pants an officer in WWII would have been issued to wear. This, keep in mind, is essentially where the chino pant started and was popularized — so it’s both classic Americana and military inspired. Double RL is leaning into that here.

The pockets are almost like a canvas, and they are properly sized. There’s simply not a lot to say about the material itself. Instead, I’ll comment that the material feels soft to the touch from day one. It feels like your favorite pair of chinos, which you worked hard to break in for years — comfortable.

Fit & Style

This is the part where these chinos separate themselves from all other chinos. The fit is spot on with a medium rise, a straight but tailored leg silhouette — these pants get every single detail correct. That means that they are flattering to wear.

That also means that they fit in most places you want chinos to work. Toss a t-shirt on with them, and head out for a casual look. Tuck a button down in, and head out for a smarter look. The only thing they don’t strictly do is look dressy. That’s not to say they can’t dress up, but rather the worn/washed in nature pulls them back to a more casual look.

The part which people struggle with on these pants, which is hard to explain, is the intangible quality of them simply looking very nice to the eye. That’s hard to explain because it is not attributable to any single aspect of the pants, but is rather the culmination of all the decisions taken in the design of these pants.

The slight wear and fading on the belt loops. The stitching detail and slight angle at the pocket opening. The button flaps on the back pockets. The visually soft and worn nature of the cotton twill. The straight, but not baggy, cut of the legs and seat. Add that all up and you get a pair of pants which simply look premium — which look well considered. Quite truthfully, the only time you tend to get a combination like that, is when you spend more money — it’s what a lot of the ‘technical’ chinos we’ve talked about here are missing in spades.

Performance

Yeah, so these are 100% cotton, no gusset, no stretch. Just cotton. They wear like cotton. From a performance aspect — there’s essentially nothing here (at least along the lines of what we talk about). Let me note on some wearability things with these before touching on something which I think is stand out on these pants and should fall under performance.

  • Range of Movement: the first thing I noticed about these pants, is the restriction of movement at the extreme ends. Trying to put on my shoes, will lead to the pants being tight around my leg bending at the hip. Doing a large step up to get into my SUV, same. Generally I can still do these things, but I notice the pants when I do them. What I can’t do is those same things with my iPhone 14 Pro Max in my pocket, there’s just no where for the phone to go, and it completely will shorten the range of motion on that leg. It’s not ideal.
  • Breathability: the thing we often forget about cotton is that it does breath well. I’ve worn these from 40°F to 85°F so far, and they’ve been comfortable. I don’t think they will be the most comfortable at the ends of the spectrum, but I’ve not felt as though I regret the choice. They are certainly most comfortable in the 50 – 75°F range of temps.
  • Drying: I have to hang these to dry, and they take a full 24-32hrs to fully dry. That’s not good, and it’s mildly annoying, however;
  • Washing: the care instructions essentially say to wash these sparingly. What that means in practice is that you wash them when/if they look or smell dirty. Otherwise, try not to. I’ve washed three of the four pairs since getting them, and that’s it — they still look and smell clean.

So drying isn’t that large of an issue because you don’t wash them often. But there’s no DWR, or anything to protect the pants, thus these aren’t so much lacking in performance for your day to day wear, but do present potential pitfalls when/if you travel with them. One spill, and you might be waiting a couple days to get them dry to wear again — especially so in the pocket areas.

One hidden performance attribute here is the fly. This is a button fly, but the button holes have the covering flap stitched down at the top and bottom of the hole. Thus when you sit down, there’s no risk of the top flap flipping over and showing the buttons — instead the fly lays rather flat and smooth at all times. It seemed like such a small thing when I got the pants, but it’s yet another small detail which is well thought through.

Overall

These are my favorite pants to wear, not just to the office or out on date nights — but generally. I love wearing these. I took a pair on a beach vacation, and foolishly didn’t pack some sweats for lounging in the condo — but it wasn’t an issue because I lounged in these. That’s crazy, these are chinos. But that’s the magic here: the look sharp, are durable, and for very comfortable to relax in. And you can basically wear them for anything.

I’ve never liked a pair of pants this much, so while the price is steep — they are worth every penny.

Buy here.

NOTE: where possible all product links on this site may earn the site money when you buy using those links.

RRL (Double RL) Officer Chinos

Giving Up Nylon (Mostly) aka Buying Classic Clothing

Editorial Ben Brooks

My wardrobe was set — each day I when went to work I would slip on a pair of Futureslimworks (aka Futureworks) in Dark Navy or Space Grey (sometimes Sandstorm). I would pair these pants with Wool&Prince’s Merino Wool Button Down shirts. I washed the pants whenever they looked dirty or started to fit loose. I washed the wool shirts about once a month, or when they smelled.

It was all pretty simple, except one thing…

I would get home from work, and I couldn’t wait to change into some lounge wear — cotton sweats, a merino t-shirt. It’s not that I was ever uncomfortable throughout the day, or even at home. But I certainly wasn’t relaxed in my clothes.

And when I looked in the mirror in the morning — no matter how I paired my wardrobe, I always felt as though things were slightly off. The pants were too smooth, or the shirt didn’t quite lay down right. I don’t know, maybe it was the combination with the shoes.

And then the straw that broke the camels back — my Wool&Prince shirts started to look like trash. The sleeves kept shrinking to levels where they wore too short — even though I would wash on cold, and hang to dry — the sleeves just kept climbing. The material itself looked tattered — not on the cuffs where you might expect it, but where the sleeve meets the cuff, where the shoulders meet the sleeve. The material looked like it had seen a lot of wear, of use, and decay. Somehow rumpled, worn, and pulled all at once in these spots.

And even though I kept buying the shirts, they kept wearing out — and then one I bought only three months prior suffered the same fate. I was done, no more. It doesn’t matter how good your clothing’s performance is, if it is ill fitting or doesn’t last, it’s not worth it. It has to fit, it has to last.

So I went to Proper Cloth again — it’s been a long time since I bought from them. And I grabbed a merino wool shirt, for what I frankly felt was too much money, but it was coming made-to-measure in the exact setup I wanted. That was back in August and that shirt still looks perfect. And so I got another, then a non-merino, and then some Oxford Cloth Button Downs (OCBD).

I love these shirts. They feel amazing, and they fit great. I have to wash them after only a couple wears (OCBD) or about the same for the merino, but they fit and the materials are fantastic. But they threw the look of my outfits off — the OCBD looked not right with the smooth texture of the Futureslimworks, so I needed new pants.

And so, I did, I got full cotton pants. I’ll be writing about all this stuff, but there’s more to this than the items. I finally feel relaxed in the clothing, while not really finding any performance pitfalls — mostly because it all fits well and I have the ability to care for it easily.

Let’s talk about that relaxing feeling, here’s how I see the difference:

  • Futureslimworks: I am always comfortable in these, and never restricted by them. They perform very well, and they resist stains like no other. But when I try to lay back in a pair, they always feel cool against my skin, they always remind me a bit that they are there.
  • Cotton Chinos: I can feel a little restricted in these at the extremes of motion, and they certainly offer no stain resistance. But when I sit down wearing these, kick back on the couch, I don’t have a nagging thought that some other pants would be more comfortable. The fabric is always comfortable against my skin, never too cold, and while they are not magic performance enhancing materials, I’ve yet to find a general discomfort wearing these day to day.

Comfort is an aspect of clothing we’ve focused a lot on here, and rightfully so. Far too many clothing items are of low quality, poor materials, poor cuts, and bad designs — they feel uncomfortable. We should all feel comfortable — I am simply no longer convinced that to feel comfortable you must target scientific advances in clothing fabrics. Sometimes cotton pants provide vastly more comfort than the most advanced nylon-elastic fusion on the market.

There’s also the drape and texture that has driven me towards more classic clothing. The biggest complaint I see (visually, but also in reviews) around performance fabrics is that they don’t drape on your body correctly. We all know, and have seen this — it is no mystery. Too stiff, too crinkly, too smooth, or lacking all structure. It can lead to a weird look, and it was another trigger for me with my wardrobe.

As I said above, I got tired of my Wool&Prince shirts wearing out, so I switched to a made-to-measure Pima cotton Oxford cloth. It looks fantastic, but when you pair that with the incredibly smooth texture of Outlier’s Futureslimworks, the entire look is slightly off. It’s not that you need a shirt with nylon or merino, but you do need something not heavy Oxford cloth in texture. But that’s the shirt I wanted, so I needed my pants to work better with the shirt.

There are very few pants that offer that texture in a performance fabric, which also drapes well. Because, yeah, sometimes cotton does it better. Just the same as how it is hard to replace leather for boots and loafers with nylon.

None of that is to say that you can’t pair synthetics and natural fibers — but rather that to build the cohesive look that I was after, it was increasingly more difficult to do with synthetic fibers. Whereas it is rather effortless with natural fibers.

In other words, leather work boots, and a nice waxed jacket can look good with Outlier pants, but it almost always looks good with pair of jeans or cotton chinos. Part of the reason I moved to synthetics was to make my life easier, and a big reason I am now moving away is to make my life easier.

Easier in different ways.

On the one hand synthetics tend to look brand new almost always, and require little washing and worry when out and about. But they are harder to get ideal fits and cuts, and require more focused thought to create cohesive wardrobes. A lot of thought, actually.

Natural fiber garments fade and wear overtime, but make easy work of putting together classic styles and staying current and timeless in your looks at the same time. But they do require more laundering, and more replacement over time (theoretically, not always) — though they generally don’t suffer from too many durability issues if you spend the same money on them as you would the synthetics.

In other words: I’ve traded less washing and harder to style, for more washing and easier styling. Moving the amount of thought I need to put into what I shall wear today to the easy category, and making the weekends a little more laundry heavy than before.

An easy tradeoff to accept.

More to come on the items I’ve moved to soon…

NOTE: where possible all product links on this site may earn the site money when you buy using those links.

Giving Up Nylon (Mostly) aka Buying Classic Clothing