WHILE PACKING FOR MY biannual transatlantic trip to attend the Spring 2019 men’s fashion shows in Europe (see my reports from Florence and Milan), I almost, almost slipped a pair of shorts into my suitcase. But then I thought: No.
Shorts, even the neat olive green pair I had picked out, seemed too informal and too revealing to fly in the finicky atmosphere of Men’s Fashion Week. My fears were not unfounded: Jesse Hudnutt, a men’s buying consultant who jets to Europe each season for the shows, was barred from entering a Milan restaurant last year for wearing shorts. Though it’s unclear whether the restaurant in question still enforces that dress code (Mr. Hudnutt didn’t try his luck again this summer), shorts were otherwise so pervasive in European cities that I regretted my own no-shorts policy. In Florence, Milan and especially Paris I was confronted with exposed calves just about everywhere I turned, both on the runway and off. While there can often be a disconnect between the runway and real life, shorts proved an exception.
At French brands Ami and Kenzo, short lengths fell below the knee, dangerously close to the capri fault line. At Dior and Hermès, the cuts were skimpier and paired for maximum contrast with jackets and long-sleeved sweaters up top (that kind of coverage balance is a decent idea to try at home). And at Lanvin, shorts were glen-checked and pinstriped, like shorn dress pants.
In reporting that shorts exist, I realize I’m not breaking news. Yet, like boxer briefs, tank tops and socks, shorts have traditionally been more about function than fashion, only occasionally (and often oddly) receiving their turn out on the catwalk.
“By nature, [shorts are] not really a fashion item, they’re a leisure weekend thing,” said Bruce Pask, men’s fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. More a form of sartorial air conditioning than anything designers fuss over, shorts have primarily come in simple forms with some notable exceptions (Thom Browne has made shorts suits for years). Khaki for Home Depot runs. Mesh for the gym. Madras if you think you’re Bill Murray or were raised in Kennebunkport.
Yet this round of fashion shows marked a bit of a coming-out party for this humble garment. Shorts were fertile ground for creativity, with designers presenting novel ideas that went well beyond the battered J. Crew critter shorts you’ve had since your undergrad years. The new variations were, as Mr. Pask said, “not your everyday Bermuda.”
Designers played with fabric—with results ranging from paint-smeared beige cotton shorts at OAMC to acetate nylon numbers at Comme de Garçons Homme Plus to candy-striped cottons at Thom Browne. The length debate inspired wild experimentation, from the skimpy (Hermès, Dior, Sacai) to the super-long (Issey Miyake, Jil Sander, OAMC). This season, according to Mr. Pask, proved that shorts can “suit a wide array of personalities and comfort levels.”
But why is fashion embracing shorts now? On the most basic level, it’s hot and men at the shows just want to wear shorts, modesty be damned. All week long, as I dragged my sweltering self from show to show, I envied my fellow attendees who were bold enough to wear shorts. Dozens and dozens of them. Even on editors and buyers, the most calculatingly style-conscious folks imaginable, shorts were as common a sight in Paris as cigarette smoking teenagers. “My decision to wear shorts during fashion week mainly started from a comfort thing” said Matthew Marden, the style director of Esquire, who let his legs fly free in shorts all week. As Paris’s temperatures climbed up toward the 90s, his approach seemed ever wiser.
Common sense, it would appear, has prevailed. Though comfort has increasingly been a factor in shaping men’s fashion over the last few years, it seems that fastidious editors and no-compromise designers have set aside past persnicketiness to acknowledge that, now, even shorts just make sense. Perhaps the prideful clotheshorse’s mantra “suffer for fashion” has given way to “keep me comfortable and maybe, if you could, also try to make me look good too”? In any case, next season, I’m packing shorts.
Write to Jacob Gallagher at Jacob.Gallagher@wsj.com
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