Heading off on a trip and don’t know what to wear? Whether you’re venturing to the airport, the train station, or in the car, one thing’s for sure: Comfort is non-negotiable. Sure, trusty leggings and cozy sweats are MVPs, but, sometimes, you want to look a little more “effortless jet-setter” and a little less “just rolled out of bed.” Enter: travel pants.
When curating our list of the best travel pants, we held them to sky-high standards: They needed to be versatile enough to wear straight off the plane and into whatever adventure awaits, comfy enough for the bizarre yoga-esque positions you’ll find yourself in while attempting to sleep on a long-haul flight, and stylish enough to pair seamlessly with the rest of your wardrobe (and avoid the dreaded overpacking guilt). Bonus points to pants with practical perks like wrinkle resistance, technical fabrics, and — the holy grail — pockets.
Meet our 24 favorite travel pants below. Once you experience the magic of sweat-wicking, breezy, and polished bottoms that don’t scream “athleisure overload,” we promise you’ll never look back.
All linked products are independently selected by our editors. If you purchase any of these products, we may earn a commission.
Laid-back and utility-driven, these cargo pants are built for travel days. An elastic waist keeps things comfortable, while roomy pockets stash essentials within reach.
We The Free Park Ave Pants, $, available at Free People
Eloquii Side Stripe Track Pants
These track pants blend comfort with polish, making them perfect for travel days. The rich burgundy hue elevates the sporty silhouette, while the wrinkle-resistant ponte fabric and wide-leg fit keep things easy from takeoff to touchdown.
Eloquii Side Stripe Track Pants, $, available at Nordstrom
Mango Wide Leg Knit Pants
Polished but low effort — these refined knit pants bring stretch comfort with a sophisticated drape. The wide-leg silhouette and elastic waist make them a first-class choice for travel days.
Mango Wide Leg Knit Pants, $, available at Nordstrom
The Group Haven Pant
These high-rise pull-on pants keep you cool and comfortable on the move. The sweat-wicking fabric feels sleek, while the relaxed wide-leg fit makes long hours easier.
Hop aboard the satin pant trend in transit — nothing looks more luxe (without the fuss or discomfort).
Madewell Pull-On Straight Pants in Stretch Satin, $, available at Madewell
Alex Mill Riley Pant
Travel days call for pants that feel like pajamas but look pulled together. Made from ultra-soft lyocell, this drapey pair keeps things breezy, comfy, and effortlessly polished.
Alex Mill Riley Pant in Drapey Twill, $, available at Alex Mill
Pilcro The Izzie Relaxed Pull-On Barrel Pants
Bring the barrel-leg trend to travel days with these jacquard pull-on pants. A gently tapered fit, lightweight twill, and rave reviews ensure a comfort-plus feel through every leg of the journey.
Pilcro The Izzie Relaxed Pull-On Barrel Pants, $, available at Anthropologie
Spiritual Gangster Victoria Rib Pants
These ribbed flares nail two trends in one — a textured knit and a subtly flared leg. Soft, stretchy, and kissed with wool, they’re the perfect blend of style and warmth for chilly plane cabins.
Spiritual Gangster Victoria Rib Pants, $, available at Nordstrom
Reformation Julien Poplin Pant
Not your average track pant — these polished wide-leg trousers bring a sleek upgrade to sporty style. With a relaxed fit and an adjustable waist, they’re equal parts comfort and cool for travel days and beyond.
Reformation Julien Poplin Pant, $, available at Reformation
SPANX AirEssentials Brushed Straight Leg Pant
Comfort meets polish: These straight-leg pants have a silky-soft feel, four-way stretch, and pintuck details for a more refined travel look — perfect for long-haul flights, road trips, and beyond.
SPANX SPANX® AirEssentials Brushed Straight Leg Pant, $, available at SPANX
Dôen Hilaire Pant
These vintage-inspired palazzo pants offer retro charm with ease. The horn button detail at the high waistband adds to their timeless character.
Quince has done it again — first with its washable silk, now with its ultimate travel pant, combining the sleek silhouette of dress trousers with the comfort of your favorite yoga bottoms. The pull-on style and four-way stretch make it as functional as it is stylish — perfect for running, squatting, mid-flight naps, or anything else your day throws at you. Honestly, we wouldn’t blame you for wearing it to work, too. It also comes in four different inseam lengths.
Quince Ultra-Stretch Ponte Bootcut Pants, $, available at Quince
Paige Reid Ankle Straight Leg Jogger Pants
When you want comfort without the athleisure look, these soft yet structured pants are it. Made from a breathable lyocell blend, they bring a relaxed yet utilitarian feel with darted knees and adjustable cuffs.
PAIGE Reid Ankle Straight Leg Jogger Pants, $, available at Nordstrom
Abercrombie & Fitch Menswear Pull-On Pant
The look of trousers with the ease of a drawstring? That’s the kind of duality we love — perfect for channeling the polished vibe of travel’s golden era on your next work trip or adventure.
Abercrombie & Fitch Menswear Pull-On Pant, $, available at Abercrombie & Fitch
Nike Sportswear Phoenix High Waist Wide Leg Sweatpants
Certain travel days absolutely call for wide-leg sweats — so why not go for them in bubblegum pink? Totally Glinda-approved.
Nike Sportswear Phoenix High Waist Wide Leg Sweatpants, $, available at Nordstrom
rag & bone Miramar Terry Wide-Leg Pant
Hear us out — jeans, yes, but not really jeans. These super-soft, denim-lookalike wonders come highly recommended by stylish women for comfort-first moments, from marathon travel days to pregnancy. A must-try for their exceptional softness.
rag & bone Miramar Terry Wide-Leg Pant, $, available at rag & bone
Petal & Pup Lowell Stripe Wide Leg Rib Pants
Love a matching set for travel days? This striped wide-leg pant pairs perfectly with the coordinating sweater for an effortless, put-together look.
Petal and Pup Lowell Stripe Wide Leg Rib Pants, $, available at Nordstom
Daily Practice by Anthropologie Ankle Pants
The iconic swish of ’90s-inspired parachute pants is like an audible time machine, triggering nostalgic vibes we’re fully into for travel days.
Daily Practice by Anthropologie Daily Practice by Anthropologie Ankle Pants, $, available at Anthropologie
Everlane The Dream Pant
Wrinkle-resistant and business-ready (thanks to the pintuck detailing), these cotton-blend pants rival the comfort of your favorite sweats.
Everlane The Dream Pant®, $, available at Everlane
Lululemon Dance Studio Relaxed-Fit Mid-Rise Cargo Pant
Pockets make the difference between good travel pants and great ones — and this mid-rise cargo style from Lululemon ticks all the right boxes, blending all-day function with effortless style.
Lululemon Dance Studio Relaxed-Fit Mid-Rise Cargo Pant, $, available at Lululemon
Athleta Brooklyn Mid-Rise Ankle Pant
Side-panel pants with a professional punch? Count us in. They bring ventilation and a subtle textural twist to your look, and they're available in regular, tall, and petite lengths.
Athleta Brooklyn Mid-Rise Ankle Pant, $, available at Athleta
Vuori Halo Essential Wideleg
Do you dream of Vuori’s DreamKnit? Same. These ultra-soft wide-leg pants deliver that signature feel — with a mid-rise fit, drawcord waist, and front slash pockets — perfect for travel days or laid-back lounging.
Vuori Halo Essential Wideleg, $, available at Vuori
OFFLINE By Aerie Real Me Xtra Trouser
Meet the Aerie Xtra Trouser: buttery-soft with a super-wide waistband that hugs comfortably and a wide leg to balance a fitted top. Pair it with an oversized shirt or classic sweater for a non-try-hard, put-together vibe.
OFFLINE by Aerie Real Me Xtra Trouser, $, available at Aerie
J.Crew Factory Kelsey Flare Pant
Unburdened by legit work pants on a plane? Say hello to these cute kick-flares crafted from a so-soft cotton blend — equally smart with a blazer and loafers as they are with a crewneck sweatshirt and sneakers. Available in classic, petite, and tall lengths.
J.Crew Factory J.Crew Factory Kelsey Flare Pant, $, available at J.Crew Factory
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Trigger warning: This article contains discussion of eating disorders.
In December of last year, Vogue dropped a special digital-only cover celebrating Zac Posen’s appointment at Gap featuring seven models. “Creativity for everyone,” it trumpeted on the sub-headline.
Except, uh…where was the “everyone” Vogue spoke of? I personally had to triple check the date on the post to make sure the cover shoot had happened in 2024, so much did it resemble the thin Vogue covers I remembered from the mid-aughts, all sharp jaws and collarbones and hipbones. (Oh wait: There, with her body tucked almost completely out of view, was Devyn Garcia, the only non-straight-sized model on the cover.)
As a fashion editor with over a decade of experience, I’ve come to understand, if not quite excuse, the lack of plus-size representation in high fashion editorials. After all, if runway samples are only made in straight sizes, opportunities are limited. But this cover was talking about the freakin’ Gap — and not the cool Gap of the late ’90s, even, but the Gap of 2024, which is struggling to compete in an increasingly oversaturated market and which, according to its website, offers sizes up to a 20. I find it challenging to grasp why there wasn’t better body representation on a cover touting creativity for everyone, to say the least. (We’ve reached out to Vogue for comment and didn’t hear back.)
Opportunities for plus-sized models in fashion are disappearing at an alarming rate: During the spring/summer 2020 season, 86 plus-size models walked runways across all four major cities, a tremendous improvement that accounted for 2.8% of all models; by spring/summer 2025, that had plummeted to 0.8% percent. (Around 4% were “midsize,” a term to describe sizes 6-12 that has yet to really catch on within an industry that prefers to consider any size over 4 to be “plus.”) In her newsletter Line Sheet, fashion journalist Lauren Sherman noted that, “Anecdotally, agents are seeing more specs for models sized 6/8 or 8/10 (known as mid-size) instead of 16, 18, 20.”
“If we look back at recent history, over the past 10 years, it went from no plus-size models on the runway to a few plus-size supermodel on the runway,” says model Lauren Chan, citing names like Ashley Graham and Jill Kortlev as success stories. “We got to a really exciting place where we were seeing what we call ‘new face plus-size models’ who were having their first season, who were relative unknowns before that. Designers were putting them on exclusives — that’s the treatment that straight-size models get, and that’s how they build careers in high fashion… I’ve realized that that’s pretty much stopped.”
Those who have been pushing for better body representation in the fashion industry — like myself — have found ourselves wondering how we got back here. There were signs: The Miu Miu Spring 2022 collection, which largely featured very thin models to show off the Abercrombie-core ultra-mini skirts; the quiet retreat of high fashion and mall brands alike from offering size extensions in their clothes, citing financial concerns in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic; and, of course, the rise and rise and rise of GLP-1s like Ozempic.
It’s that latter piece of the puzzle which has particularly seemed to bring pop culture as a whole screeching back to the standards of thinness which dominated the early aughts. Not that being thin ever truly disappeared as a value in Western society, but rather, people feel comfortable saying the quiet parts out loud again — we see it regularly on TikTok and X.
“The Ozempic issue is so much larger than fashion, and I think that’s what makes it so dangerous,” says Ruthie Friedlander, co-founder of The Chain, a non-profit dedicated to eating disorder advocacy in the fields of fashion and entertainment. “We talked about it last year at awards season, and it’s impossible to ignore. It’s basically attributing to this resurgence of what the ideal body image looks like, except now, you don’t have to starve yourself — you can just give yourself a shot. That’s a really dangerous environment to put anybody in, especially with people with eating disorders.”
It’s become almost shockingly easy to get a prescription to a GLP-1 like Ozempic, whether through telemedicine or online start-ups — a marked difference from trying to get almost any other prescription medication on the market. (“My heart medication, I spend, and I’m not even joking, hours a month trying to get these refills, a ton of time and money on medications that aren’t covered by my insurance. But Hims and Hers is sending me advertisements about how to get weight loss shots. I find that to be blood-curdling,” Friedlander says.)
It’s the biggest dirty not-so-secret in fashion that people are taking a GLP-1 to lose those last five to ten pounds that might take them to the next size down — or, as I overheard someone say at a show last fashion week, people across the industry are “‘Zemped up.” And the obsession with weight loss is extending beyond our own bodies, as The Chain co-founder Christina Grasso points out.
An obsession with female thinness is not about beauty, it’s about obedience… If women can take up less space and be so much more obsessed with something that’s so meaningless, like the size of our bodies, then we’re missing everything that’s happening that actually does matter.
Christina Grasso
“The entire discourse that has opened up about Ozempic and similar drugs has really given people the permission to freely comment on people’s bodies again. For a while, it got better, but now I feel like it’s just kind of a free for all,” she says. “An obsession with female thinness is not about beauty, it’s about obedience. With everything going on in our world right now, that also might have something to do with it: If women can take up less space and be so much more obsessed with something that’s so meaningless, like the size of our bodies, then we’re missing everything that’s happening that actually does matter.”
The inevitable trickle-down effect — that aforementioned sample size quandary that impacts who gets access to fashion — worsens for everyone. Designers are making clothes that fit smaller bodies, which means models need to be smaller. The ones featured in campaigns are smaller, the ones on covers are smaller, the samples available to loan to them and to influencers are smaller. It’s a little nesting doll that disappears down into nothing but size 000 bullshit.
Maybe it’s good that the industry is going mask-off again. The lack of, quite frankly, token representation is clearing space for brands and designers and influencers actually invested in improving the state of things rather than checking off a diversity box.
“I think it’s a sign of progress that we’re even having these conversations amid the rise of weight loss drugs, because I would bet that had this happened in the early aughts, we wouldn’t have been able, as a media industry, as a culture, to have conversations as dynamic as what’s going on with the state of body diversity,” Chan says. “So, although we’re in a regression of size inclusion, it’s still progress that we’re having these conversations; we’re still a step ahead in the game of two steps forward, one step back.”
Still, it would be nice if everyone in the fashion industry got back with the program and reinvested in body inclusivity across all fields. Instead, it feels like I’m in an echo chamber with the same advocates and critics who have been shouting about this since I started out in the industry. For an industry which purports itself to be forward-thinking, this kind of regression towards the old status quo isn’t just ignorant — it’s boring.
As another fashion month is set to kick off in New York, hopefully that conversation moves back to the top of our collective mind. As Friedlander more bluntly says: “I really hope that in 2025, people feel more comfortable having hard conversations about this, because it’s going to be the difference between fashion remaining solvent and creative and interesting — and I mean that both from like a luxury perspective and a non luxury perspective. I hope people stop being fucking pussies and start asking us questions about how to do that.”
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Style-wise, the Grammys stands out from the rest of the award shows. Whereas Hollywood’s finest like to play it semi-safe at the Oscars and the Golden Globes, choosing pretty gowns and the occasional suit, those who attend music’s biggest night prefer grandiose entrances and mid-ceremony outfit changes. That’s how we ended up with such a wide array of daring looks from Grammys past, including Sam Smith’s striking red Valentino ensemble, Miley Cyrus’s Maison Margiela masterpiece, and Rihanna’s meme-able bubblegum pink Giambattista Valli dress.
While, of course, we tune in each and every year for the performances and awards, like the hotly-contested Album of the Year and Best New Artist, fashion inevitably becomes the main focus of the night. With the 67th Annual Grammy Awards creeping up on us, we thought we’d take a trip down memory lane and count off our all-time best-dressed looks from the event.
This article was originally published in March 2020 and has since been updated.
Queen Bey made history as the most awarded artist in history wearing a custom Gucci gown.
Photo: Timothy Norris/FilmMagic.
Cardi B, 2023
Miss Belcalis Almanzar stunned in a dress by Gaurav Gupta Couture.
Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images.
Doja Cat, 2022
Doja Cat didn't just wear one of our favorite Grammy dresses of all time (made by Versace), but she unleashed the glass handbag trend when she wore this Coperni x Heven number in 2022.
Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.
Megan Thee Stallion, 2021
Megan Thee Stallion won Best New Artist and Best-Dressed Nominee at the 2021 Grammys.
Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images.
Ariana Grande, 2020
"Baby, you can shut up" if you don't like this 20-foot, custom Giambattista Valli gown on Ariana Grande.
Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage.
Billy Porter, 2020
Billy Porter's remote-controlled, rhinestone-fringe hat was enough to get him on this list. The rest of his teal-and-silver Baja East look was just icing on the cake.
Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic.
Lizzo, 2020
Glamorous doesn't even begin to describe this Old Hollywood-inspired Versace gown on Lizzo.
Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage.
Lady Gaga, 2019
TBT to when Lady Gaga gave Celine's Hedi Slimane her red carpet stamp of approval.
Photo: Dan MacMedan/Getty Images.
Chloe x Halle, 2019
Sisters who sing together, coordinate their red carpet fashion together.
Photo: Lester Cohen/Getty Images.
Cardi B, 2019
Cardi B came out of her (vintage Mugler) shell for the 2019 Grammys.
Photo: Dan MacMedan/Getty Images.
Taylor Swift, 2016
Normally a high-low, two-piece look wouldn't be our choice for a red carpet, but Taylor Swift's Versace set was equal parts glamorous and fresh.
Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic.
Rihanna, 2015
In our book, Rihanna can do no wrong — this bubblegum pink Giambattista Valli gown is a step above the rest.
Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic.
Destiny's Child, 2001
We didn't even notice the five Grammys on the floor because we were too busy admiring all three of these looks.
Photo: Steve Granitz Archive 1/WireImage.
Britney Spears, 2000
This all-white ensemble on Britney Spears doesn't get the recognition it deserves.
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.
Jennifer Lopez, 2000
Name a more iconic outfit than J.Lo's Versace Jungle dress. We'll wait.
Photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.
Mary J. Blige, 2000
The diamonds! The shawl! The hot pink color! Mary J. Blige did everything right at the 2000 Grammys.
Photo: SGranitz/WireImage.
Jada Pinkett Smith, 1998
It's no wonder Jaden Smith is such a style star today. Just look at this dress his mom wore to the Grammys while she was pregnant with him.
Photo: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images.
Lauryn Hill, 1997
Laid-back and sophisticated, this red-and-white dress was the winner at the 1997 Grammys red carpet.
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.
Aretha Franklin, 1992
No one does leopard print quite like Aretha Franklin.
Photo: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images.
Prince, 1988
Only Prince could pull off literal head-to-toe polka dots.
Photo: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images.
Grace Jones, 1983
No one out-styles Grace Jones. No one.
Photo: Chris Walter/WireImage.
Yoko Ono & John Lennon, 1975
From the feathers to the Elvis nametag, Yoko Ono and John Lennon's Grammys looks were undeniably cool.
Photo: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images.
