I Tested Everlane’s Work Pants to See What All the Hype Was About

“Everlane, the beloved direct-to-consumer retailer that underscores its radical transparency with pricing and manufacturing, tends to know precisely which polished basics its loyal customers are (or soon will be) hankering for: When the seven-year-old e-comm-focused brand launches a new product, quick sell-outs and wait list soon follow. (When Everlane debuted denim with three styles in 2017, there was a 45,478-person wait list…on launch day.) Its Work Pant, unveiled at the beginning of 2018, is no exception.

On January 25 Everlane rolled out the $50 trousers (traditional retail price: $100) in regular and ankle lengths, in a few muted colors, like navy, gray, and dark green. Just one day later the humble, pretty plain office-apropos pants were out of stock and had racked up a pretty insane wait list—12,000 people deep. And while restocks usually happen within a few weeks, the Work Pant took four full months to slowly trickle back to its website. It reappeared in late May.

The initial design objective was “to create a slim pant that was comfortable and looked tailored enough to wear to work,” explains Kelli Dugan, Everlane’s head of merchandising. The design team sampled two different fabrics and spent over a year working toward the best possible fit, she explains, and even focus-grouped the style before producing it. “We held a 30-person fit clinic to understand how the pant fit on different sizes and shapes,” she says. ‘The result was a pant made with a comfortable four-way stretch with a flattering high waist, side zip, and a leg-lengthening back seam detail.’”