“What’s The Point Of Shorts If They’re Not Short?” Celebrating Menswear’s Short-Shorts Revival

The outspoken designer Tom Ford famously said that men “should never wear shorts in the city.” Writer and cultural critic Fran Lebowitz called them “repulsive.” A lot of detractors find men in shorts to look childish or plain silly. I respect Tom and Fran, but opinions can actually be wrong. Shorts are a necessary and practical part of any man’s warm weather wardrobe—but the hemline has to be just right. Gentlemen, take note: We’re talking about the 5-inch seam short. The real arrival of men’s short shorts in corduroy, velvet, cutoff denim, and even leather arrived in the ’70s, and the trend continued into the ’80s with shorts getting shorter and more popular than ever. I can recall a great image of Paul Newman and Robert Redford playing ping-pong while on set shooting Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid—both showing some leg. Mick Jagger was often seen in perfectly frayed denim cutoffs, and an image of a young John F. Kennedy, Jr., with a boombox under his arm, sporting white cotton shorts has been used on countless mood boards. In the ’90s Michael Jordan began wearing his shorts longer on the basketball court, making roomier knee-length shorts a broad, long-standing trend, but now, we see a return to a more tailored and thigh-baring look on the runway from brands like Prada, Martine Rose, and Christopher Shannon. Read more at Vogue.