The London Lounge

Greetings from Melbourne!!
I'd like to get your opinion about short pants. I don't consider them elegant and I believe they do not flatter the male leg, regardless of how athletic it may look. However, a recent article on this subject in Mensflair attracted a couple of posts from men who were quite adamant they have a place in the male wardrobe and furthermore, opined it was unsophisticated to "ban" anything! (Hoyttie toyttie, excuse me! I think they went a tad too far but never mind.)

I just don't like short pants. Fair enough, if it's stinking hot and your on vocation or you're a tradesman working with mad dogs and Englishmen on a building site in Spain in mid August then I suppose they are necessary, but honestly...

I plead guilty to being an old fuddy duddy re my sartorial prejudices? What sayest thou?

Cheers,
Ian from Downunder

Don't wear shorts, wear swimming trunks and only on a beach.

Shorts don't have a place in my wardrobe. Elegant Swimming trunks do!

To: All over the world
Good to read your response. Glad I'm not alone on this one.
Cheers, Ian from Downunder

Tailored shorts that stop just above the knee are OK in summer at a resort, on a beach, boat or at a barbecue during the day. Probably fine for long walks in hot weather and puttering around the house if you're not expecting guests. In Bermuda, shorts with a blue blazer and knee socks are certainly appropriate, but not particularly appealing. Fine for hunting or fishing camps. Sports, of course, trunks for swimming, shorts for tennis, running, training, etc.

Anything more than this is to be avoided, I think. The worst offenders are old men who have given up on their appearance and wear shorts everywhere for comfort's sake despite the scars, wrinkles, varicose veins and assorted keratoses, which make them objects of horror. Others are young men in athletic wear, or those horrible long shorts with hems somewhere between knee and the ankle, slung so low on the hips that the waistbands of their underwear hike up over them.

Places where shorts REALLY annoy me:

A hotel lobby
A restaurant or bar, in fact meals in general, unless taken alfresco, in daytime, next to a swimming pool
An office
A private club
Shopping
At a party of any kind
In church
In a hospital or doctor's office
On tradesmen
On domestics of any kind
Any time after sundown
In winter or cold weather

I've seen all of these!

C

I almost forgot:

In town. Shorts in town are vile.

C

Preaching style to the fish and birds of the Danube Delta from the top of a birdwatching tower - pulpit.

WARNING: if you have strong convictions about un-athletic male legs exposed, DO NOT click to see the lower part of the picture - it's a scandal! I told you not to click...

The faithful voiced no objection. My sermon was silent in exchange and everyone went on with their business happy and content... I in my boat, the fish under, the birds above. PS: Welcome to the Lounge, Ian - I hope it's not a shock

Add me to the anti shorts gang. The first sign of the sun in the UK brings out the horrible spectacle of a mass of men with blue white hairy legs wearing ill-advised shorts. I am sometimes pressured by family into them while visiting relations in NSW but for me they belong on the sports field or the beach. I do not like shorts for long walks in hot weather and one can find very lightweight trousers better suited to trekking in my opinion.

By swimming trunks "all over the world" do you mean budgie smugglers? They may look OK on a fit younger man but older more rotund men look better in the shorts type of swimming wear.

While agreeing with the consensus, developing the above Bermuda theme, they sometimes can look ok (and better than the jackets that do not fit).