My pants requirements are simple: 100% cotton, blue or grey, can handle actual work, can also be worn somewhere my wife wants me to look slightly dressed up.
This combination is apparently impossible to buy.
For everyday wear I default to 100% cotton chinos in blue or grey. Banana Republic and Gap both have a grey that’s close to what I want. The BR pants are a little better quality but pricier — not worth it for pants that are going to get beat up. For heavier duty stuff I get the Dickies 100% cotton canvas carpenter pant, which comes in a few different weights. But here’s the running problem: it’s getting harder and harder to find just cotton. BR, Gap, Dickies — they all add polyester to everything now. So much for going organic and natural.
The Dickies are legitimately heavy duty, but they’re true work pants — not flexible for other situations. They’re not as comfortable as chinos, the colors aren’t great, and when I wear them with my chore coat I look like I’m wearing a uniform.
What I actually want is a hybrid: 100% cotton duck canvas chino in grey or blue, with a better leg cut and fit. One pair that does both jobs, so I’d stop having to change between work/chore/farm pants and chinos several times a day. All those pockets on carpenter pants and the hammer loop fill up with dust and debris and catch on things. Give me simple heavy canvas chinos that can survive pricker bushes and brambles but are stylish enough to wear to a casual function, as long as they aren’t filthy.
Where I’ve landed for now: Banana Republic keeps renaming their chinos and they’re down to 98% cotton, but it’s close enough in the straight or athletic fit. Today they’re called the Italian Stretch Chino, in something like charcoal grey. Gap has khakis with the same cotton content, slightly thicker, but only a single button closure. They come in straight or relaxed straight. There are probably others, but this is where I landed because of availability, convenience, and the brick-and-mortar option — all things I think about, especially since I hate going to stores. The return-and-try-on factor matters when you do find something.
The one issue both pants share is the leg opening. The chinos are too narrow at the bottom to fit over work boots, and the carpenter pants have too much room at the cuff. The right answer is somewhere in between. Dickies does make a more chino-style work pant, but the fit is a bit odd.
Two others I’m still eyeing, both surfaced by the algorithm once it figured out what I was searching for. The Line of Trade Officer Chino at $80 is the one that hits my spec most directly — 100% cotton, straight leg, available in flint gray, surplus olive, navy jaspe, several different fabrications including herringbone and ripstop. WWII military heritage with a heavy garment wash so they’re broken in from day one. The Relwen Flyweight Flex Chino at $198 is the opposite trade — 5.5oz cotton/spandex blend (not 100% cotton, which is the compromise), but a mountaineering gusset and pleated knees for mobility, in charcoal, surplus olive, navy, dark sand. Probably the better travel pant. Neither is the heavy canvas hybrid I’m describing, but Line of Trade is the closest I’ve seen anyone get.
This is the same problem I keep writing about with hoodies, chore coats, raincoats, and work boots. The materials still exist. The construction still exists. But somewhere along the way the manufacturers decided that “performance” meant adding stretch and shaving cost, and 100% cotton heavyweight canvas in a wearable cut got engineered out of the category. So I keep two pairs of pants in rotation — one that works and looks wrong, one that looks right and doesn’t — and change between them several times a day.
Even that's Odd 
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