Summer is a season of subtraction, of revelation. Hot temperatures yield fewer clothes and, thus, more skin. In recent years, shorts have been getting smaller, shorter, more abbreviated. Men like Donald Glover, Paul Mescal, Harry Styles, and Connor Storrie have all been the very embodiment of that seasonal thesis in their thigh-revealing shorts (or “slutty little shorts” to borrow GQ’s parlance) that make a meaty showcase of their toned quads. Labels like Prada, Tom Ford, and Saint Laurent, meanwhile, have pushed the very limits of propriety by showing itsy-bitsy little shorts on their runways, sometimes little more than a wisp of fabric. We were living in a golden age of tiny shorts.
But a marked shift is underway: on the streets of major cities (likely the cooler neighborhoods; Bushwick, we see you), on your social media feed, perhaps even on your very own body. Short-shorts are on the retreat. Big shorts are on the rise.
Welcome to Big Short Summer™—a season to embrace long, flowing, voluminous below-the-waist garments, hanging south of the knee or, at times, much lower. Shorts with dynamism, a hearty, confident shape, and sweeping gesture. Whatever shorts you choose to wear this summer, just make sure they have presence—which is to say that they are very, very big.
“There’s something deeply American about them,” says designer Willy Chavarria, who often shows shorts of Brobdingnagian proportions as part of his collections. “They connect to workwear, streetwear, Chicano culture, sports, skate culture; all these worlds that shaped how I saw style growing up,” he says. “The rejection of restrictive dressing. All of that filters into the silhouette.”
Chavarria believes the current embrace of them is, in part, thanks to a new generation of confident male dressers, unafraid to experiment with shape and volume. “For a long time, menswear became very controlled: slim, fitted, hyper-groomed,” he added. “Oversized shorts reject that notion, as they create movement, ease, and confidence.”
“To me, it’s a natural progression from baggy pants, which we’ve seen rise over the last few years,” says Sam Bolianatz, a content creator based out of Toronto. “Now that big pants have made it into the mainstream of menswear, I think there’s a new comfort level for guys to adopt big shorts.”
Bigger shorts may be having something of a moment, but Bolianatz notes they possess an enduring, nostalgic quality as well. He counts memories of his grandfather wearing big jean shorts to do weekend yard work and the continuing influence of 1990s J.Crew catalogues as lasting touchstones.
