Rag & Bone Just Nailed Its Comeback Jeans

To really appreciate clothes and to fully understand what you truly like, you have run through the full gauntlet of menswear trends and make it out of the other side alive. After you’ve tried multiple trends and fallen into the menswear equivalent of a Looney Tunes trap floor, only then can you spot a brand or fad bubbling back up and think, ah, yes, you again.

In my case, about 12 or 13 years ago, I fully bought into the slim-taper denim movement. I jumped in feet first with Rag & Bone’s Fit 2, a jean that was slim through the entire leg with just a bit of stretch.

As the years flew by, Rag & Bone slowly fell off my radar. They stopped making denim in New York, kicked their Standard Issue line of high-end essentials to the curb, and generally seemed unsure of what they wanted to be. That all started to change when Robert Geller, who wrapped up his tenure with the brand in late 2025, took over two years ago, and refocused on what made Rag & Bone special in the early aughts: obsessively detailed outerwear, their signature Peruvian cotton tees, and, crucially, a damn good pair of jeans.

While the brand now offers five different fits, it’s the Fit 4—their classic straight leg—is the real standout. It’s a little roomy through the seat, without veering into full dad-jean parody. I went with the ochre blue wash, which nails that perfectly patinated, slightly dirty vintage look. It’s like you found them in a great thrift store but without the mystery stains. I took a 31×32, and since they’re 100-percent cotton, expect the usual post-wash shrinkage. There’s a zip fly (a blessing for button-fly skeptics), and honestly, these might be some of the best-fitting jeans I own that aren’t Levi’s.

The Fit 4 has been around for a few years, but I’m glad I finally gave it a shot. I’m a dad now and I have zero interest in undercarriage restriction, and mostly wants jeans that will look good 15 years from now. I put my Rag & Bone pair through a test drive with three different outfits and came away happy to see the label hitting its denim-making stride once again.

Outfit 1: Sun’s Out, Fleece On

This time of year in Ohio, it’s obviously cold, but when the sun’s out and the temperature hovers around 30 degrees, we’re usually taking our son out for a walk. This fit is GORP-adjacent, but you can’t deny a the power of a good fleece.

This one from Gramicci fleece is ready for whatever mood the weather’s in—which, lately, has been all of them. Underneath, I’m wearing a crewneck from Canadian in-house label Haven, layered over a still-miraculously stain-free white tee. To be prepared for any terrain the trails throw at us, I rounded out the kit with one of my favorite footwear collabs of last year: Merrell x Gramicci.

Outfit 2: Hoodie Under Leather Still Hits

Just like a crewneck sweatshirt slips easily under a denim jacket, a hoodie does the same under a leather jacket. Call me Layering Leon, but the devil is truly in the details. This early iteration of Buck Mason’s leather jacket borrows from old mechanic and service-style silhouettes, but it’s the hoodie underneath that really brings it home, a beefy 22-ounce, Made-in-USA fabric from the fine folks in Nashville. No notes.