Piqued of The Week: He Wears The Short Shorts

This post topic has actually been piquing my interest since last week, when I read a post over on The Man Repeller about male style faux pas. For those of you who aren’t familiar, the Repeller details the different ways in which women’s high fashion trends repel (straight) men. The post focused on decidedly down market trends (Ed Hardy) and just general misfortunes (flip-flops and shoes, plumber crack), because, frankly, straight men don’t do high fashion so much. (Generalization, I know, but I’m speaking generally…) I was interested in the high fashion trends that are too outré for most heterosexual women to consider their partners wearing that might also be necessarily “woman repelling.” Let’s discuss.

When I was younger I took it for granted that shorts were just what one wore during the summer months, but as I’ve grown older I’ve come to realize that there’s contention regarding these seasonal staples.  Tom Ford declared them only appropriate, “on the tennis court or on the beach,” and an intrepid T reporter detailed the mixed reaction to his below average inseam when putting the new lengths of men’s shorts (short) to the acceptable-in-America test. Personally, I think most men wear their shorts too long and too wide – and don’t even get me started on the ills of cargo shorts! I always try to find pairs that fall above the knee, as that works best with my proportions and I prefer a super slim cut. I have two pair from Phillip Lim that I’ve fallen out of love with over the years – a rolled-up style that I had hemmed because they were too long, but then the roll got wonky, and a corduroy pair that needs to be trimmer. I bought two pairs of shorts at H&M simply because they had my size, but then I spilled on them…and the most recent pair I purchased have an unfinished hem, which I cut myself to get the length right and now they seem to be unraveling. Needless to say, shorts and I don’t necessarily get along. But I support them, and I support them being short. If you wanted to be guaranteed of a pair of shorts’ woman-reprelling power you could wear the oversized bow-front version, as seen at Duckie Brown, or tuck your over-the-knee lace-up sneaker boots into them á la Givenchy. When it comes to bling, most of the post commentary seemed to lament thumb/pinky rings and things like chokers, which I see as a styling niche of skaters and surfers (and which I haven’t seen since leaving California.) But what would one say of jewelry designer Philip Crangi?

This one I’m throwing in just for fun. I saw this picture of some fashion guy wearing his layers of leopard last week and ever since have been wondering how I can incorporate the print into my own wardrobe. I have no fear of wearing it on a big item such as a coat, although I think I’d refrain from layers of it. Probably a woman repeller though…shucks.

Man Repeller didn’t even touch on the rise of the man heel, but I have a feeling that the woman who isn’t jazzed at the sight of her loved one in Teva’s isn’t looking forward to seeing him prowling the streets in a four-inch platform. I never wear sandals, because I don’t have a pair I particularly like, but let me just say that walking around wearing flip-flops with jeans or khakis or any full-length pant is is baddumbwrong. That is all.

Photos via Oak, Tommy Ton, Style.com, Scott Schuman, and probably the NYTimes…maybe some others.