The London Lounge

What is the prevailing wisdom on shorts for summer? I tend to like my pants with no pleats and on the narrow side, but shorts cut in the same style look a bit like those god-awful jean shorts.

I see in some of the summer articles, that there are some shorts that are actually quite elegant looking, are there any suggestions on what to look for and where to find them?

I suppose if one were to wear shorts at all, Bermuda shorts would be the most plausible choice.

Worn with knee socks and leather shoes.

Linen trousers are a better alternative unless attending to a "honey do" list.

Orvis sells some nice poplin shorts, and occasionally some less nice ones made from linen.

I'm glad you qualified your headline-- there is a much longer list of purveyors of shorts for wintertime.

A middle ranking pair of denims with the legs cut off, mid thigh. Unhemmed. Good for most things.

RELAX, it's summer

Will wrote:Linen trousers are a better alternative unless attending to a "honey do" list.

I think you are right. I think that I have finally passed the age of shorts looking good anyway.

Oh for God's sake. Yeah, let's all pull on our Bermudas and knee socks and leather shoes and/or our linen trousers to make a run to the car wash and swing by Costco on Saturday morning. This is getting a bit ridiculous.

Banana republic, in its old delirious-last-days-of-the-Raj-imitation-of-the-old-Abercrombie-&-Fitch incarnation used to sell a really cool pair of Ghurka style shorts. I believe a similar pair of shorts is shown in one of Tutee's articles on resort dress (I will try to post a link if I can find it and if not I will find the source I have and post it). Those were by far the most elegant shorts around, if for no other reason than that they did great things for the appearance of waistline and hips.

I have never seen them elsewhere or since. If anyone knows a source, please post it.

I believe that Ralph Lauren also has followed in the older BR tradition for looser mid-length shorts.

I used to have a pair of the Banana Republic Gurkha short, bought at least 15 yrs ago, which I completely wore out. I could never find another pair of shorts like them, there was always something off. After much trial and error I finaly got my tailor to produce something adequate but without the Gurkha fastening at the waist.

dopey wrote:
I have never seen them elsewhere or since. If anyone knows a source, please post it.

Bill's offers their rendition of the Gurkha short.

ThomasG wrote:Bill's offers their rendition of the Gurkha short.

Thanks, ThomasG, but I am not impressed with Bills’ version compared with the old Banana Republic version. That one had a much wider waistband , which then tapered, in a nice curve, into the two side straps. The straps had sewn grommets and were secured by a real buckle.

I have looked in the Tutee articles on this site, and haven’t seen the image I was thinking of. I will keep looking.

I'm not a big fan of shorts, personally. But iIf you're going to wear them, you should try J. Crew. They sell them flat front or pleated, 5, 7, 9, or 11 inch long, in about 8 colors.

iammatt:
I found the AA/Esky illustration of Gurkha Shorts that I was thinking of:


and here is a slight variant:


The Gurkhas have it, in my opinion.

Both pictures are from Alden’s Summer chic thread.

Is that drawing set in Del Boca Vista?