Bermudas?

"The brute covers himself, the rich man and the fop adorn themselves, the elegant man dresses!"

-Honore de Balzac

Pierre Spies
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Thu Jul 05, 2012 11:43 am

This whole bermuda trend leaves me a bit puzzled. Even with nicely shaped legs, I'm still not convinced. See the seersucker bermuda guy. And another example of heron legged bermudas mishap to his right :D

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NJS

Thu Jul 05, 2012 12:14 pm

Ugh. Breakfast has been postponed. Shorts with a coat and tie and no socks? What's the point? Shorts and a polo shirt for the beach; a thousand times 'Yes!' but these are just lost post-modernists trying to look trendy and ending up looking geeky.
Pssst
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Sun Jul 08, 2012 1:05 pm

NJS wrote:Ugh. Breakfast has been postponed. Shorts with a coat and tie and no socks? What's the point? Shorts and a polo shirt for the beach; a thousand times 'Yes!' but these are just lost post-modernists trying to look trendy and ending up looking geeky.
Sartorial equivalent of a mullet. Business upstairs, party downstairs.

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hectorm
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Mon Jul 09, 2012 3:23 am

Pierre Spies wrote:This whole bermuda trend.....[/img]
But not exactly a new trend....
http://theselvedgeyard.files.wordpress. ... /c-24.jpeg
NJS

Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:01 pm

hectorm wrote:
Pierre Spies wrote:This whole bermuda trend.....[/img]
But not exactly a new trend....
http://theselvedgeyard.files.wordpress. ... /c-24.jpeg
No: but isn't it possibly one that is best forgotten?!
aston
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Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:49 pm

None of the shorts pictured in this thread are, truly, Bermudas.

Typically, these will be made using the same wool cloth as any formal trouser, cut just to the knee with PTUs, and worn with socks which come just to the knee, with a formal shoe.

And you would not wear them anywhere near the beach.
Rowly
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Mon Jul 09, 2012 6:15 pm

In my opinion they should only be worn in the Bermuda Triangle :wink:
Last edited by Rowly on Tue Jul 10, 2012 10:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
NJS

Tue Jul 10, 2012 3:25 pm

In the Long Good-bye (1954) (iii, 17), by Raymond Chandler, there is the sentence:

''Loafing around one of the swimming pools in Bermuda shorts.''

never having had much reason to pay them any serious attention (as I wouldn't even wear them in the dark), I have always thought that (regardless of the material), they were just the baggy, knee-length jobees like those which Eric Morecambe used to wear for comic effect, when engaged in exchanges such as:

Ernie: ''Have you got the scrolls?''

Eric (looking down): ''No. I always walk like this!'' :shock:
Gruto

Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:34 pm

Is the combination bad in itself? It is more about how you use it - and your legs :)

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couch
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Tue Jul 10, 2012 9:55 pm

Gruto wrote:Is the combination bad in itself? It is more about how you use it - and your legs :)
Precisely. The fellow on the left of Fellows's illustration is wearing a blazer (without a necktie) at the water's edge, possibly a marina. This is a more formal daytime ensemble than we usually see today in that setting, therefore unobjectionable. I'm reminded of Sator, who used to quip tirelessly that the lounge suit began as beachwear.

Michael's post and rodes's subsequent question in the Q&A forum were about wearing Bermuda shorts with jacket (and possibly tie) in warm-weather business, worship, or (admittedly sui generis in the case of Pitti) convention settings. So the Bermuda-shorted ensemble would be less formal than we usually see today in these settings, and thus questionable. It seems likely that the traditional code for the island of Bermuda itself does not yet extend to Europe or North America for such occasions, and as aston points out, even on the island certain details are expected that are missing from most of the ensembles pictured.

This is quite apart from Michael's sound advice about knowing what looks inoffensive on your own body.
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