<p>I have a skinny guy too. We’ve tried on pants from just about everywhere but Banana Republic was the winner. Slim cut, nice looking and nicer dressier fabric. They don’t have much in the stores but free shipping over $50 and you can return to the store. </p>
<p>I bought 2 pair for Christmas with shirts and he could pick out the outfit he liked best but he kept both pair of pants and took back the shirts.</p>
<p>If you can’t find 30" waist pants, get 32" and tighten belt.</p>
<p>lizard–I have tried that for my son who wears 31 inch. The boxers ride up above the belt. A dress shirt does help keep everything in place but when he wears the khakis to school with an untucked tee (his standard ‘uniform’), the 32s just slide down while the boxers slide up. I do concede that outfitting girls would be much more challenging…</p>
<p>My 20 something son will NOT wear Eddie Bauer slacks. Waist is too high cut. He goes to Express, Banana Republic or Gap.</p>
<p>DH who also wears a 30-32 loves Eddie Bauer but wouldn’t be caught dead in DS’s pants.</p>
<p>I didn’t think of Zappos - I love them! In fact, I have a box of shoes to return, ordered multiple styles/sizes for my son. I’ll try their khakis, maybe I can spare myself a trip to the mall.</p>
<p>Another question for the group: pleated vs flat front? I have been looking only at pleated. Maybe this isn’t right for very young men?</p>
<p>And would a belt size be the same as a pants waist size? (Stupid question, I know…)</p>
<p>NYMomof2, that is not a stupid question! it is not intuitive that a belt needs to be a size bigger, e.g. for 30 inch pants you need a 32 inch belt.</p>
<p>We always had good luck at Macy’s for dress pants. My son was a 29x30 last year when he needed dress pants and we found a good selection of 30x30. I just checked on-line and they have dress pants in 30x32 but no 30x36.</p>
<p>Flat front. Pleated is currently out of style for the 20 something guys. Actually, DH won’t wear them either.</p>
<p>My little charmer wears a 29-32 and we have gotten “performance attire” at the Men’s Warehouse and Dockers (that is his school uniform) at JC Penney’s.</p>
<p>Definitely flat front, not pleated. D2 flat front in Dockers for the young guys. The D2 are slim fit and sit lower at the waist, but not to hipster “skinny jeans” extremes. Your son will think the D3s are too baggy – like “mom jeans”. I wear D3’s and I think they are a little baggy.</p>
<p>Belt size? It is totally, 100% unpredictable. Usually, one size bigger than the pants size, but if you buy that way, you’ll be guaranteed to find out that, in that belt, on that day, you should have bought the same size as the pants. It’s not even consistent in the same brand. I’ve got one style of LLBean belt that I wear the same size as my pants, another style that I need the belt to be one size bigger. It also depends on where the waist of the pants falls.</p>
<p>Shouldn’t belts be easy to buy? Just put the belt on while trying on the trousers to see if the belt fits properly.</p>
<p>UCBA…trying on the belt works…but not if you are doing an online order!</p>
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<p>That’s assuming you have the pants, the belt, and the waist in the same place at the same time with a willingness to cooperate…</p>
<p>BTW, if you are just looking for a belt and don’t have something fancy or special in mind, Marshalls and TJMAXX is the place to go. Brand name cheap belts. Same Chinese stuff as Kohl’s for about half the price. It’s not like any of it is nice leather until you get way up there in price.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the suggestions! We are all set now. We have one pair of dress pants from Kohl’s, one pair of Dockers Signature Khaki, and one pair of absolutely beautiful khaki pants from Nordstrom. The Nordstrom pants are the nicest I’ve seen. The fabric is wonderful - Supima cotton, very smooth. The fit is great, slim but not tight. They are available in many, many sizes, including tall, and in flat front and pleated, and they are on sale for half price:</p>
<p>[John</a> W. Nordstrom® Smartcare? Pleated Supima® Cotton Pants | Nordstrom](<a href=“http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/john-w-nordstrom-smartcare-pleated-supima-cotton-pants/3552603?origin=category-personalizedsort&contextualcategoryid=0&fashionColor=&resultback=1682&cm_sp=personalizedsort-_-browseresults-_-1_5_A]John”>http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/john-w-nordstrom-smartcare-pleated-supima-cotton-pants/3552603?origin=category-personalizedsort&contextualcategoryid=0&fashionColor=&resultback=1682&cm_sp=personalizedsort-_-browseresults-_-1_5_A)</p>
<p>I’d ordered two sizes because I thought they might be small, but they are true to size, and I returned the larger one. Nordstrom will ship things out very fast, and returns are free, very easy. The order comes with a shipping label.</p>
<p>The Kohl’s pants are dress pants. The Dockers are flat front, D3 fit. The D2 was slightly too tight, the pockets pulled a little bit. I thought the D3 fit was awful, very, very baggy, but my son said, “Baggy is comfortable,” so that’s what we have. </p>
<p>And I got a belt from Zappos, you guys were right, one size up fit. </p>
<p>Thanks again! I know I can always get good advice here on anything.</p>
<p>Ooh thank you for that link! Those are very nice pants.</p>
<p>I thought pleated was definitely “out” these days.</p>
<p>zm, You should see them in person. </p>
<p>MOWC, I learned that here. My son doesn’t care. I will move him to flat-front in the future.</p>
<p>The flat-front ones are available and on sale, too.
[John</a> W. Nordstrom® Smartcare? Flat Front Supima® Cotton Pants | Nordstrom](<a href=“http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/john-w-nordstrom-smartcare-flat-front-supima-cotton-pants/3552609?origin=category]John”>http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/john-w-nordstrom-smartcare-flat-front-supima-cotton-pants/3552609?origin=category)</p>
<p>Express has pants that are great for slim guys. They are not cheap, but they have a couple of different styles that work for both very thin and regular thin. Their slim fit shorts are also very nice, but at H&M you can get them much cheaper if you don’t care that much about quality.</p>