Pleated pants have come back from the stuffy confines of sartorial hell to become a quick elevation for any outfit. Once in the domain of stale khakis and goofy golf shorts, the structured folds have ...

If you're unfamiliar with pleated pants, let me give you a brief crash course. Pleated pants are pants with vertical folds in them, starting just under the waistband and running down the front legs.

After more than a decade of flat-front, slimmer-is-better propaganda, this news may come as an unexpected—and unwelcome—surprise to even the most enterprising men of style: Pleated pants are back.