THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. **** Saturday/Sunday, August 17 - 18, 2019 |D3
STYLE & FASHION
COPY CAT
The Shortest
Wearing men’s mini-shorts is an admittedly
advanced move. John Wayne was an early adopter© PHILIP STERN TRUST (WAYNE); F. MARTIN RAMIN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, STYLING BY ANNE CARDENAS (SHORTS)
I
HAVE TO admit: John Wayne
had some nice legs. And he
must have known it too, be-
cause during a 1959 vacation
to Mexico, the chisel-chinned
star wore a pair of hot pants so mi-
croscopic that his shirt tails nearly
hang below the shorts’ hems. They
have maybe a 1-inch inseam and, on a
towering fella like Mr. Wayne, who
clocked in at a purported 6 feet 4
inches tall, that is awfully eensy.
The inseam length of Mr. Wayne’s
audaciously undersized shorts is at
the extreme end of the scale (truly, I
don’t see how you could get smaller)
but men’s shorts today are inching
further up the thigh. Men are flashing
their legs “in kind of an aggressive
way,” said Ryan Robison, 31, an inven-
tory planner in San Francisco. In his
city, short shorts have become some-
thing of a norm—within reason. He
more conservatively leans toward 4 or
5-inch inseam shorts from J.Crew and
Patagonia, which land above the knee.
(For those who have always won-
dered: “inseam” refers to the mea-
surement taken at the inner thigh.)
Meanwhile, Fendi and Prada pro-
duce mini-shorts so mini they rival
Mr. Wayne’s Mexican gam-flashers. In
some places, particularly coastal cit-
ies, men have taken to running er-
rands in wee running shorts from
sporty brands like Nike and Stone Is-
land, which can have a sub-3-inch in-
seam. Threes, twos, Mr. Wayne-like
ones—such scanty inseams leave lit-
tle to imagination and, in the most
extreme cases, can also leave you vul-
nerable to a wardrobe malfunction.
Overly lengthy shorts have their
drawbacks, too. William Ryan, 25, a
brewer in Portland, Maine, dramati-
cally declared that anything longer
than 5 inches makes you “look like
you’re this giant baggy mess.”BYJACOBGALLAGHERLEG DAY John Wayne wearing some extremely short shorts in Acapulco circa 1959.2.75”
Shorts, $450,
prada.comRISE AND SHINE / SHOULD YOU DECIDE TO FOLLOW MR. WAYNE INTO THE VALLEY OF THE TINY INSEAMS, HERE ARE SOME OPTIONS
3.5”
Commas Shorts, $268,
matchesfashion.com5”
Shorts, $65,
jcrew.com5.75”
Shorts, $180,
battenwear.com6”
Shorts, $140,
aimeleondore.comFor the reasonable version of the
short-short look, a 4- to 5-inch in-
seam—hitting just above the knee—is
the sweet spot. This is a shift from the
7- and 8-inch-inseam board shorts of
the ’90s and early aughts. Those hung
so low they shielded lower limbs from
critical examination. Today, men ap-
pear to be feeling more confident.
“Maybe it’s just we’re feeling good
about health and we’ve got nice legs
now,” said Alexander Taylor-Sattler,
28, a freelance graphic designer in
Knoxville, Tenn., who favors a 5-inch
inseam. Mr. Taylor-Sattler’s use of the
royal “we” is generous, but many (of-
ten young) exercise-happy men do
want to showcase the fruits of their
fitness. As Mr. Robison, a longtime
runner, bashfully said, shorter shorts
“show off your quads a little bit.
That’s kind of cool.”Though fitness flashing might ex-
plain the current up-creep of in-
seams, as Mr. Wayne demonstrated,
men wore short shorts well before
the advent of CrossFit. Cary Grant,
Dean Martin and Sean Connery were
all fans. Shorts began as beachwear
so they were designed to be cool. A
man “will never wear shorts except
at the water’s edge” wrote British
designer Hardy Amies in his 1964
book “ABC of Men’s Fashion.”
The neat, natty look of the ’50s
and ’60s appeals to Mr. Ryan. “I al-
ways look at ‘The Talented Mr. Rip-
ley’ or some of the older photos of
John F. Kennedy and [think] like, ‘OK
this is when shorts were great.’” His
neat 4-inch-inseam Carhartt and Pat-
agonia shorts complement his retro
camp-collar shirts.
Short shorts can involve some
comfort challenges. “I don’t really
like wearing shorts that are like
borderline underwear,” said Sean
Sutherland, 35, a freelance creative
director in Verona, N.J., who prefers
a 6-and-a-half to 7-inch inseam.
Anything shorter, he added, “always
rises up and then you get the awk-
ward picking at [the rear end].”
To compensate for that discomfort,
many short-short-seeking customers
choose pairs that slightly flare out at
the leg. “In terms of function it makes
it easier to move around,” said Chris
Gentile, the owner of Pilgrim Surf +
Pilgrim in Brooklyn, N.Y., who has no-
ticed customers’ going up a size in his
brand’s knee-length shorts to get a
roomier fit. Certainly roomier than
Mr. Wayne’s Saran-wrap skivvies.Men’sshortstoday
areinchingfurtherup
thethigh.