Shorts and Your Style

In this post, by shorts, I mean lengths that have inseams of five inches and shorter.

In the Summertime casual shorts are extremely popular in my neck of the woods. Men, women, teens, and children all wear short shorts in Seattle. Most of my clients in Seattle wear shorts, but to varying degrees. Some wear them all Summer long with tees, cotton blouses, knitted tops, open-weave pullovers, sneakers, sandals, or flip-flops. They wear shorts to do errands, shop, go out to dinner, camp, garden, walk the dogs, and for all sorts of casual settings that involve children. Some wear shorts at home to lounge and work in the garden but that’s it. Some haul them out on a hot day over the weekend. Others will wear them on the beach, resort, camping, hiking, golfing and theme park vacations and leave it at that.

Although I regularly shop for shorts with clients, I am in the minority and don’t wear them myself. I wore them a lot until my mid-twenties, but not since then. Here are the reasons:

It’s seldom hot enough to do so since I live in Seattle and run cold. (Although our weather doesn’t seem to stop anyone else.)

When it IS hot enough, I’d much rather wear a casual shirt or sack dress that’s just above the knee with flats. Casual dresses simply suit my style and sartorial preferences better than shorts. I LOVE wearing trousers but don’t enjoy wearing shorts.

I prefer the thigh coverage of a Summer dress, which makes me feel a little dressier and more elegant than when I wear shorts.

I like the breezy yet covered feeling on my legs when I wear a roomy frock in hot weather.

I have two pairs of denim cutoffs (old BF jeans), that are just above the knee so longer than typical shorts. I wear them when we take doggies swimming, and very occasionally on a walk with Sam.

I don’t go on the types of vacations or do the types of sports that require shorts and don’t do gardening or go camping.

My Summer loungewear is soft, airy, covered and floppy. I grew up in a tropical climate and never feel overly warm in Seattle.

Over to you. Do shorts work for your style. When and how frequently do you wear them?