We’ve hit maximum acceptance of the wide pants revolution, which is good news for any guy who’s spent time on a squat rack. Skinny jeans (even stretch chinos) were never our friends. It’s also good news for brands like Dickies, whose higher rise, looser fit Original 874 Work Pants have rocked the wide leg look since 1967 and never tend to fade out of style. Though, the brand goes through bull and bear phases. Now, it’s all bull; heritage design and cultural zeitgeist converge to breathe new life into classic styles. Dickies has capitalized with recent collabs across the brand spectrum (Supreme to Harley Davison to high fashion favorites Willy Chavaria). You’ve even got the 1922 collection that leans even more into its heritage by reissuing classic styles from its archive.
But I’m not here to write about the brand’s original work pants, which have long been the staple of the skate community and carried a countercultural appeal through even the emo-punk painted on jean era of the early-aughts. They’ve got enough press. I’m here to write about the sleeper hit in Dickie’s line, a perfect summer pant: the Double Knee Painter’s Pants.
Dickies Double Knee Painter’s Pants
I picked up my first pair of Dickies Double Knees at a gear resale shop in Flagstaff, Arizona. I supplemented my grad school poetry degree by washing boats and repairing gear at a river outfitting company that supplied white-water paddlers for multi-week expeditions through the Grand Canyon. My co-workers were an interesting combo of Arizona desert people and river dirtbags with outdoor recreation degrees. What they had in common: Dickies pants. Sure, there were Carhartt jackets a plenty, but on an hourly wage, Dickies won out for being tough, budget-friendly, and as useful on the river as they were in the warehouse. That said, you do not have to do any of that to rock a pair. These are just really good pants you should wear. You can sit at a desk all day for all I care.
If white pants feel a little too cool guy, the natural white color is a great entry point. They’re more earthy. In dim light, they could pass for a washed-out pair of khakis, and they’re also naturally more forgiving of the occasional stain. Because if you wear white pants, you will spill on them; that’s Murphy’s law for pre-Labor-Day attire. (Also, don’t pay attention to the old “rules.” Wear your white pants year-round.) And while I’m a firm believer that you shouldn’t baby your expensive clothes, it also feels better to stain a $30 pair of pants than a $300 pair. Believe me, I’ve done both.
And while summer generally means lighter weight fabric, or at least cutting a heavy workwear fabric with something breezy, a high-low combo also works with fabrics too. A tough double knee with a breezily unbuttoned linen shirt is always a good look. And while the pants are double knees, they’re not quite as heavy as burlier cousins from Carhartt and Ben Davis, probably why Dickies can sell them for half the price. It also makes them the ideal spring-summer pants, when you want the look of a double knee or functionality of the workwear pockets. Add, you never know when you’ll need a hammer loop.
Most of all, the Dickies painters are versatile. These are pants every guy can throw on and feel like he’s doing the fashion thing. It’s the only pair of pants I’ve been complimented on by both a surly, third-wave barista and an octogenarian in the CVS prescription line. If that’s not a cross-section of America, I don’t know what is.
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