All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Are any accessories as essential, yet mysteriously overlooked, as the best men's scarves? First, they warm your neck (and face, and chest) like nothing else. Second, they put a style-forward, cheery, colorful bow on pretty much any outfit. And yet, these soft little miracles are all too often an afterthought in the menswear world. Even if you’re the type of guy to painstakingly lay your fits out the night before, chances are when it comes to your scarf game, you’re still reaching for one you picked up in a rushed pinch from Nordstrom Rack, or at a frigid college football game.
This is, of course, fine. But it’s also sort of a tragedy. Because when you pick up a truly great scarf, everything changes. Swaddling your neck in cashmere (or cashmere-emulating fabrics) doesn’t just provide a soothing all-day embrace through bracing winds. It also, like a necktie, creates an opportunity for a flash of personal style, right under your handsome face. Even better, because scarves use less fabric than coats and knitwear, they’re also a great way to own some of the best materials in our industry for far less scratch.
To help you pick the one you’ll soon be recognized by, I surveyed hundreds of scarves from across the fashion (and budget) spectrum, journeying from mall chains, to historic British manufacturers, to the buzziest makers today, and everything in-between. Below, the final 26 best men's scarves to knot up this winter—and next winter, and the one after that.
A red scarf not only brightens your day, but everyone else’s around you. This one was carefully designed by Lands’ End to feel like cashmere, at a noticeably non-cashmere price.
Another bandana-shaped option from a fashion-guy approved brand, Margaret Howell’s 100% lambswool scarf covers every area you need it to and none you don’t.
As the two picks above show, shopping for scarves allows you to enter the luxury realm for much less. Here’s another example: Legendary London tailor Anderson & Sheppard sells practically nothing else for under $100. Plus, those dots are sophisticated as anything.
True cashmere is hard to find at this price point, but sometimes weaving just a little of the stuff into your wool—as Barbour has done here—softens everything up just so.
It’s always nice to find a plaid print that doesn’t stay too loyal to muted Scottish patterns. This green is almost neon, but see that pink, too? It calms things down just enough.
Pitch-perfect with or without a suit to match, I see this as the more serious alternative to the Barney-purple scarf above (from the same collaboration.) If you can spring for both, you’ll never need a third.
We now enter the world of exquisite, stare-at-all-day designs. Before Drake’s was the menswear behemoth it is today, it made its name from the intricate patterns of its silk scarves. This Mughal print has been a brand mainstay since the late 1970s—you’ll be wanting the print on your rug next.
I’d wager that in the last decade, Acne’s tasteful checked mohair print scarves have been the biggest thing to happen in the scarf world. There are now countless colorways—including color-blocked bright ones you’ll spot from a city block over—but I’m a little more into this peaceful arrangement these days.
Handwoven in Tibet, with a loose weave developed by a master weaver who thought to use only two of the four pedals on the loom—at this price point, we’re now in the territory of magical pieces and textures you really can’t really mass produce.
With the kind of dense weave that only Scottish mills can promise, this full cashmere scarf comes in tones that are close to the Madewell blend I loved higher up—except this time, they’ll feel like butter on your neck, for all time.
One of the biggest names in Scottish cashmere, with a history going back to, yep, 1797, Johnstons of Elgin scarves are the ones I wear. Though I’d trade in all my darker ones for this baby blue and gray masterpiece.
The always contemporary-feeling Elder Statesman has actually been perfecting its cashmere knowledge for over 25 years. And now, they have a scarf that doesn’t just feel like butter, but… you get the idea.
Few of us ever get to even feel cashmere this thick, let alone own, wear, and use it as a pillow on long journeys. Thanks to Uruguayan luxury designer Gabriela Hearst, all three are now possible, if you have the savings.
Burberry could easily have rested on its laurels and stuck to its classic prints. But it’s nice that they didn’t—the beautiful, newly-revived logo is a rare case of one deserving a patch that big. And the glowing green wool is almost an engineering feat in itself.
