When it comes to casual pants, there are two kings of the category: jeans and chinos. In today’s world, many guys figure that jeans are the more informal pants and chinos are the dressier option, as it’s not uncommon to see chinos worn with a tie and sport jacket.
But not everyone knows that both garments originated as workwear. Jeans were patented in the late 19th century in the United States and became widespread for all manner of manual labor, while chinos originated as workwear in the military.
Nick from Stridewise recently visited us to speak with our founder Lennaert about the differences, similarities, and use cases of jeans and chinos — both of which BENZAK offers.
While it’s true that chinos are generally seen as the smarter option, they’re extremely tough: they’re constructed from durable cotton twill and would outlast far harder wear than wool trousers or anything else one might wear with a tie — and yet they work great with a t-shirt as well.
“Some offices consider plain, dark jeans acceptable,” Lennaert concedes. “But when you develop a fading pattern on a pair of jeans, it might not be the best type of garment for a business environment because it signifies that they’ve been worn during a range of activities that transpire outside of an office — so it’s sort of showing people that you’re not wearing anything more dressy than a t-shirt to your workplace.”
Still, it’s understandable that you’d want to know if there’s anything extra you can do to speed up the break in process of your raw denim jeans. In fact, the question is so common that there are a lot of myths and misconceptions (and malpractices) when it comes to 'cheat codes' for breaking in raw denim quickly.
