The Snowpocalypse is behind us. Temperatures are rising. It is time for bare legs. Not just for women. For men. It’s time. For. Shorts.
Shorts for men are “in” right now. You know if there were shorts at the ding dang Oscars that it must be true. (Thanks, Pharrell.) To be clear: We’re not talking about jorts. Jorts, aka jean shorts, are an entirely different animal, one hideous and untamed and left unworn. Please do not with the jorts. In addition, this is not about plus fours which can be fun in the right context, nor is it about capris. Just shorts.
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, David Colman reports that shorts are — finally, after years of knee-covering awkwardness — getting shorter: (Check out the image accompanying the piece for a visual guide.)
In the past few years, the low-water-mark length of a 15-inch-or-so inseam receded to knee-length (11 inches), then a knee-baring 9 inches, then to a quadriceps-exposing 7 inches and on to the newly fashionable thigh-flaunting 5 inches. If men’s shorts were a glacier in Greenland, scientists would be freaking out.
Since the turn of the century — the late ’90s, early aughts — we have been plagued by unsightly shorts. It’s unclear who is to blame. Hip hop? Rave? Surfers? Skateboarders? It doesn’t matter, really. The hideous trend slithered onto men nationwide, curling its tentacles around the legs of innocent dudes and sheathing them in the most terrible way. And it’s held on for so long.
Left to right: Kevin Federline in 2005; Fred Durst in 2002; Lil Wayne in 2010.
As you may know, it wasn’t always like this.