Traditionally, shorts have never held a prominent place among gentlemen in public, aside from wearing them to the beach or the tennis court.
Shorts simply weren’t an appropriate form of dress for the dapper chap. However, much of this has changed in the last few decades and much of the first world is aligning themselves with prep culture that has reintroduced summer shorts, not just in casual wear, but even pairing them with an appropriate button-down shirt for the office in the hot summer months. Despite its many critics like fashion designer Tom Ford who believes there is never an appropriate time for men to publicly wear shorts, the fact is that the idea of wearing shorts in the summer months has not only seeped its way into mainstream fashion, but many dandies and preps are adopting this trend outside the tennis court and off the beach.
History of Shorts
Surprisingly, or maybe not so, shorts were introduced by way of the tunic and toga that essentially paved the way for what we, today, consider the modern shorts. Initially, it was fashion-forward European men that wore what were, at the time, called ‘knee breeches’ before they were introduced into sports apparel by Americans roughly a thousand years later.
Originally developed for use by the military in the later part of the 14th century, they were used as a way to keep heavily packed and armed soldiers cooler while serving in tropical climates. The trend almost immediately caught on, and soon many civilians were beginning to sport these so-called knee trousers as casual wear.
Somewhere along the line, it was universally adopted that shorts should strictly be reserved for use by boys and not grown men. By the 1800s this was an undocumented rule strictly enforced and boys throughout Europe and North America wore shorts commonly referred to as ‘knickerbockers’ until they hit puberty at which point they would often receive their first pair of actual trousers as a gift. Since this became a staple of reaching pubescence, men began to shy away from wearing shorts to avoid appearing boyish and immature. Since then, many prep schools and urban public schools began to adopt knee pants as a standard uniform for their students, a tradition that still continues today throughout much of the world.
However, as the 1900s rolled around, many companies, specifically in America, began marketing a shorter version of the knee pants as athletic wear. Shorts became a staple for both men and women while engaging in many outdoor activities and sports and so the casual formality of the knee pants fizzled as men and boys began to adopt the shorts for strict use as athletic wear. Continue reading .you like short? what your favorite short? http://desynme..com/2015/07/do-you-like-short-what-your-favorite.html