Outfit Of The Week 10/27/24 – 11/2/24

No, this week’s edition of “OOTW” is not Halloween-related!

It was upwards of 70 degrees and I was sweating in the first 5 minutes of walking my kids around as they trick-or-treated. I did NOT wear anything noteworthy for that endeavor.

Nope, this week’s article features a new pair of pants I received as a gift from my in-laws that I wore yesterday.

The pants are navy chinos from Lands’ End. I had been hankering for a pair of dark chinos I could use as jeans replacements but could also dress up with a sport coat or sweater if I wanted.

Navy pants, somewhat unfairly, receive a lot of scorn from the internet menswear community. The reason why is simply because they don’t pair well with many blazers or sport coats because those jackets are usually dark colored and the pants don’t provide sufficient contrast. The easy solution to that is to just… wear a jacket with sufficient contrast.

It’s not that hard.

In my opinion, the best jackets to wear with navy pants (this time of year) are grey, herringbone tweeds and camel-hair sport coats. Lighter brown checks work well, too.

Even though navy pants don’t go with as many jackets as, say, khaki chinos or grey flannel trousers, their additional benefit is that they can easily be swapped in place of jeans, which is kind of what I did here with this outfit.

This outfit ended up pretty monochromatic, but it wasn’t intentional. I just wanted to wear these pants and this sweater.

As far as fit goes, I’ll probably get the waist nipped slightly on these pants. They are my exact waist size, but it appears that Lands’ End is dabbling in vanity sizing these days, which means they’re slightly roomier in the waist than I anticipated. Regardless, they still fit well enough out of the package that I can happily wear them around (I did give them a nice, hot wash to shrink them down a bit and it did work somewhat).

It has been unseasonably warm this week, but there was still enough of a chill in the morning and evening to make the sweater a practical choice. The sweater you see here is a navy, wool-blend from J. Crew that I have dubbed my “Travel Sweater” and I am pleased it can make its first appearance of the season.

This sweater pills more and more with each wear, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I actually like that the sweater is showing signs of use. Some men will complain about an old sweater getting a little fuzzy, but then go and spend $250 on a Shaggy Dog sweater. Does that make any sense?

The shirt I wore under my sweater was the first Oxford shirt I ever purchased. It’s a Lands’ End Hyde Park that is clearly showing its age. I love this shirt so much and I refuse to get rid of it even though it’s getting to the point where it’s not all that presentable.

For the pictures, I popped on a pair of navy socks and my Bass Weejun loafers, although I spent most of the day in slippers since I was working from home.

All in all, this outfit was a satisfying first outing for my new pants. Like I said, I will probably wear these in mostly casual settings moving forward.

Have a wonderful weekend!