While No One Was Looking, the World's Greatest, Widest Pant Got Even Better
There is no such thing as the perfect pant. But NEEDLES' H.D. Pant is pretty darn close. The Japanese label's signature egg-shaped trouser is the ultimate wide pant which, in my book, makes it the ultimate pant, period.
And it's only getting better.
NEEDLES has produced the H.D. Pant for the better part of a decade by now. And though its name remains an enigma — it's sometimes referred to as the ヒザデル ("hizadel") Pant in Japanese, whatever that means — its appeal is plainly obvious.
The beauty of H.D. Pant lies in its cut. Fitted with a drawstring waist and high rise, it's imminently comfortable. Stitched with tall vertical darts, it's imminently easy to wear.
Proportionally, the H.D. Pant is generous but reigned-in, a unique proposition for any easily accessible high-quality trousers. And when I say easily accessible, I mean that the H.D. is relatively easy to come by (a big plus when talking Japanese pants).
Though NEEDLES is more famous overseas for its trademark track pants and statement cardigans, it also produces the Japan-made H.D. Pants with similar consistency.
My favorite style, by far, was the ultra-thick 16 oz. apron-belted H.D. Pants from last winter, gently distressed like a pair of lived-in Carhartts but twice as loose as the average double-knee pant.
This make was offered only once but if you missed out, you're certainly not starved for choice.
Perpetually available H.D. Pant styles range from medium-heavy washed denim to slightly shiny militaristic cargos to H.D.-ified track pants and even the occasional elastic-waisted patterned pairs, which typically vary year-to-year.
All are huge, and all are a recipe for instant, easy steeze.
A quick skim of the Japanese web store for NEEDLES parent company NEPENTHES reveals a breadth of impressively varied H.D. Pant styles either currently available or soon hitting the company's respective New York, Los Angeles, and London websites.
To start, you have last's season H.D. Pants, made of heavy tweed or a lightweight jacquard woven with NEEDLES' papillon (butterfly) logo, each unfairly neglected.
But the new stuff is what inspired me to pen this paean.
Spring/Summer 2025's all-over crocodile-printed H.D. Pant is a stroke of maximalist brilliance, a natty example of how to improve upon perfection (hint: apply gonzo patterns). Another standout is cut from a bespoke dobby twill created in collaboration with ts(s), the textile-obsessed Japanese clothing brand run by the brother of Engineered Garments founder Daiki Suzuki.
Good stuff. Great stuff. Hardly hyped but worthy of so much more attention.
And advanced enough to satisfy even the most jaded wide pant enjoyer. For H.D. Pant neophytes, though, I'd recommend starting with the classic BDU cargos and officer chinos, which are never not produced.
And I really would recommend them.
If you've never explored the outer realms of pant shapes, you're missing out.
There's a whole wide — literally! — world out there beyond the normal trouser shapes we all know and tolerate. And there's no better gateway drug than the NEEDLES H.D. Pants.
