Pants: My silliest question, but I'm seroius
 

Looking for tips from the men on pants that hold up well against both wrinkles and stains. I'll be traveling for two weeks and would like to get by with just one or two pair of pants. I'd like them to be easily found at department stores as opposed to special order.

Any suggestions from personal experience? Thanks & sorry...never thought I'd post a clothing question.

Well, everybody is coming out with the telflon pants line. Dockers started the craze. From person experience, the solid colors attract animal hair like a vacuum.

Bill

Tilley Endurables make excellent travel clothes, well made, washable and dry overnight, with no ironing needed. Can't find their website, but just use search engine and enter Tilley Endurables and you will get info on their full line of travel wear.

My husband has bought their underwear and socks for travel. You can wash them at night and they are guaranteed to be dry the next morning. Very handy.

Hate to admit it, but "wash and wear" polyester (err, I mean microfiber), is what I take. I've washed them in the sink, worn them in the shower (almost like Cary Grant in "Charade"), spilled all over them and they always wash out fine. I purchased a really nice pair at Sears, on sale, for around $50. Black never shows any spills and goes with anything. Good luck, M.

Wojazz3:
I have to assume you meant dark colors attract animal hair? Most men's pants are solids, and I'm having a great chuckle picturing MD touring Europe in his two pairs of plaid "teflon" pants!
:)
Yes, but I agree, for walking into a department store, look for that new "tencel" material. However, I cannot imagine you could get by with one or two pairs over a two week trip!

Correction to my above post, I bought the pants at Penny's, not Sears. M.

My husband has had good luck with LL Bean's men's travel pants. He managed 2 1/2 weeks with 2 pair of those and a pair of black jeans--with some washing, of course.

As a man who wears trousers I can tell you that it isn't the color of them that attracts anything...its the dark color that shows the animal hair to its worst advantage. I've taken plain old Levis..the heavy denim ones to Europe as well as microfibre clothing...even the Levis will dry out overnight if you wash them yourself if you use the roll in the bath towel method and have one of those handy hair dryer/clothese drying pillow combos that I got from Magellans. I also take regular dry cleanable dress trousers..always in dark colors so I can wear them several times...a wool blend looks and hangs better than anything else but it needs dry cleaning...if it needs it I get it done.

I leave in 10 days for my first Ital trip and my 17th Europe trip. I work and save long and hard for my vacation time and money. I will be there for 10 days and the last thing I would want to do is to do ANY laundry myself. I researched and foung a place mid-way of my journey that will do 3 pair of slacks and 4 shirts underwear and socks for less that 15.00 euro. They will wash, dry and fold all of the items. I got the locations from Ricksteves.com .Also I was able to find a place 1.5 blocks from our hotel in Siena.I am carrying the Dockers wrinkel and stain free slacks ( khaki, black, and navy. All pirchesed at Marshalls for 24.99 per pair..

Better bring 2 pair. I had my pants stolen in a camp site in Munich. I woke up and yelled Who stole my #@*%! pants. the next morning some German campers were laughing about the guy who got his pants stolen. I told them it was me, and they thought I had them pulled off of me when I was sleeping.

Since women also wear "pants", I figure I'm qualified to give advice here.

First, make sure you don't call them "pants" in the UK. (Pants are underwear, not trousers.)

Second, choose colours that blend well with stains: e.g. mid-tones or darker, such as charcoal grey (my favourite travel colour, since it's supposed to look like it's covered in lint), olive/khaki, brown etc. Beware of "clear" dark colours like black and certain shades of navy, which will show stains, attract lint etc like magnets and look lousy if they're the least bit wrinkled.

Third, think about texture. The weave in certain fabrics results in a sort of tone-on-town shading that makes wrinkles, minor stains, lint etc look less noticeable, while a very smooth higher sheen fabric looks like hell quite quickly.

Fourth, very light weight wool doesn't wrinkle (or the wrinkles come out quickly). And it's quite comfortable even in hot temperatures.

Fifth, if you're familiar with the airline you're flying, don't forget to factor in the "blanket lint" factor when you dress for the plane - e.g. bright blue fuzzy blanket on tan trousers doesn't look very good after 8 hours.

Sixth, if you want to pack light, consider getting one or two items dry-cleaned when you travel (but make sure that this doesn't have the potential to leave you completely pantless). It might be worth it to you to pay a relatively high hotel charge to dry clean a pair of trousers and a favourite sweater, instead of packing two sets.

Polyester, black or dark, can't be beat for travel. Can be washed easily and hung on a hanger in the tub, and they dry quickly. ...Both mens and womens. Usually the less expensive ones are the best, are more comfortable, and look nice. .AND are lighter weight. ! Make it simple when traveling.....and as one usually "sits around" on various ,maybe dirty, seats in restaurants, trains, stations, benches etc....the dark works the best and the polyester is easiest to wash and dry.