{"id":92157,"date":"2024-07-01T13:06:27","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T13:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=92157"},"modified":"2024-07-01T13:06:27","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T13:06:27","slug":"mini-shorts-grazia-usa-summer-2024","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/mini-shorts-grazia-usa-summer-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"We Wear Short Shorts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gucci SS24. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Gucci<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sabato De Sarno\u2019s Spring\/Summer 2024 Gucci debut is one of those directional collections that set the tone for a new kind of look in fashion. His predecessor Alessandro Michele\u2019s fashion magpie layers were enormously influential, so whatever he showed was bound to be a shock to the system. And I\u2019ll admit that when the first model stepped out on the runway in a peak lapel coat worn over a simple white tank top and tiny black shorts, my first reaction was \u201cnot short shorts!\u201d I\u2019ve loved the mid-length and Bermuda styles that have been trending for the past few years, replacing the ultra low-rise five-pocket denim shorts that had been adored by seemingly every avatar of festival style from Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse to Rihanna and Beyonc\u00e9 since the mid 2000s. I breathed a sigh of relief the day I sent my own Rag & Bone pair with inseams so short the pockets stuck out the bottom off to The RealReal.<\/p>\n

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Ultra-low-rise five-pocket denim shorts were the 2000s-defining shorts look, thanks to music festival habitu\u00e9s like Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse. Photo Credit: Rosie Greenway\/Getty Images, Jo Hale\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But as one pair of short shorts after another in luxe fabrications like oxblood calf bonded leather and magnetic green wool paraded down the Gucci runway with coordinating jackets and coats, my eyes started to adjust, and I had to admit that these were not the denim cutoffs worn with crop tops for maximum skin exposure that I remembered. Indeed, smartly tailored styles with high waists turned up everywhere in the Spring\/Summer 2024 collections. Khaite paired black satin shorts with double-faced silk gazar poet blouses, while Michael Kors Collection showed lace shorts with a cashmere turtleneck and LaQuan Smith teamed paper bag-waist embossed croc shorts with a satin button-down.<\/p>\n

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Michael Kors Collection SS24, LaQuan Smith SS24. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Michael Kors Collection, Don Ashby\/FirstVIEW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stella McCartney\u2019s elevated ensembles included cheeky gold brocade shorts and crystal-embellished cumberbunds and Prince of Wales check coats. New Tom Ford designer Peter Hawkings showed a textural series of short suits in croc-embossed lurex, cotton velvet, and lustrous cotton blend duchesse. And Prada presented 20 different pairs of belted wool shorts styled with wool blazers, printed poplin shirts, or cashmere polos neatly tucked in.<\/p>\n

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Stella McCartney SS24, Prada SS24. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Stella McCartney, Courtesy of Prada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though retailers are largely calling the short shorts you\u2019ll find in stores this summer mini shorts, they\u2019re a close analogue of both the tap shorts worn by Old Hollywood stars from the 1940s to 1950s and a short lived trend called hot pants from 1971. First worn by Ginger Rogers and studio dancers in movie musicals, tap shorts were adopted by pin-up girls-turned-movie stars like Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable who often paired them with heels for their promotional photos.<\/p>\n

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Silver screen stars Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monro favored high-waisted tap shorts. Photo Credit: Keystone\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images, Apic\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the Dior Pre-fall 2024 show<\/a> held in New York in April, Maria Grazia Chiuri sent out chic little three-piece short suits in a range of English tailoring fabrics inspired by the more androgynous look of actress and singer Marlene Dietrich\u2019s signature shorts-and-tails; one model even carried a top hat.<\/p>\n

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Marlene Dietrich’s signature shorts-and-tails, An homage seen on the Dior Pre-fall 2024 runway. Photo Credit: AFP via Getty Images, Courtesy of Dior<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Women\u2019s Wear Daily publisher John Fairchild coined the phrase \u201chot pants\u201d\u2014the industry newspaper styled it HotPants<\/a>\u2014for an October 1970 article trumpeting a fresh crop of dressy shorts from designers including Giorgio di Sant\u2019 Angelo and Betsey Johnson worn with boots or platform sandals. Jane Birkin wore hot pants soon after, as did Yves Saint Laurent\u2019s muses Loulou de la Falaise and Marisa Berenson at the designer\u2019s pivotal Spring\/Summer 1971 haute couture Scandal show, and soon the look was, for a brief time, everywhere.<\/p>\n

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Hot pants were a brief sensation in 1971 thanks to the It Girls Marisa Berenson and Loulou de la Falaise, who wore them to Yves Saint Laurent\u2019s infamous Scandal show, and Jane Birkin. Photo Credit: Alain Dejean\/Sygma via Getty Images, M. McKeown\/Daily Express\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat are the designers going to pick when they revive the 1970s? Shorts, maybe,\u201d New York Times fashion critic Bernadine Morris griped in a January 1971 column<\/a>. \u201cIn the old days they never left the beach or the backyard, except in Busby Berkeley musicals, when they tapped. Now they\u2019re all dressed up with tailored jackets or coats, and they\u2019re ready to go out to lunch or dinner. That\u2019s progress for you. Maybe the restaurateurs in New York will provide the protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Max Mara SS24, Isabel Marant SS24. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Max Mara, Courtesy of Isabel Marant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Morris was clutching her pearls in the era portrayed in Ryan Murphy\u2019s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans <\/i>when New York\u2019s best restaurants still maintained arcane dress codes. Nan Kempner had famously been denied entry to La C\u00f4te Basque for wearing a Yves Saint Laurent Le Smoking\u2014women were expected to wear dresses or skirts\u2014and removed her pants to get into compliance. She needn\u2019t have worried: The bohemian look soon swept into fashion displacing hot pants for hippie deluxe bell bottoms as the era\u2019s defining look. But I can\u2019t imagine she\u2019d be too pleased to see that 50 some years later, Dr. Barbara Sturm hosted a VIP dinner at the city\u2019s current toughest reservation, Torrisi, wearing a pair of the Khaite mini shorts<\/a> in leather.<\/p>\n

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Khaite SS24, Dolce & Gabbana SS24. Photo Credit: Hanna Tveite, Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hot pants followed the 1960s miniskirt. Fashion trends being cyclical, it makes a certain degree of sense that today\u2019s mini shorts would land after the early 2020s defining silhouette, the Miu Miu skirt, with its waistline cut below the hipbone and hemline above the thigh. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely the update to the micro mini and a lot easier to wear,\u201d says Katie Rowland, buying director of women\u2019s wear at Mytheresa. \u201cYou can bend over.\u201d The e-retailer has already sold out of several Gucci, Khaite, and Tom Ford styles.<\/p>\n

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Tom Ford SS24, Emporio Armani SS24. Photo Credit: Marco Mantovani\/Getty Images, Courtesy of Emporio Armani<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kristen Stewart, something of a fashion oracle, modeled a custom Chanel mini short tuxedo at the Oscars back in 2022. \u201cShe had worn a pair in Charlie\u2019s Angels <\/i>and I was like, \u2018Girl, you look great in those,\u2019\u201d Stewart\u2019s stylist Tara Swennen recalls. Stewart made mini shorts and heels a fixture of her press tour uniform while promoting her new film, Love Lies Bleeding, <\/i>this spring.<\/p>\n

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Kristen Stewart and Lisa model 2024’s mini shorts from Brunello Cucinelli and Louis Vuitton. Photo Credit: Raymond Hall\/GC Images, Kristy Sparow\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For anyone feeling a bit shy about baring all, Swennen has a couple of styling tips. She suggests wearing mini shorts over tights or sheer nude hosiery to \u201ccontour the leg,\u201d as Stewart did with her Brunello Cucinelli cashmere high-waisted briefs for an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. <\/i>Singer Lisa also recently donned sheer black thigh-highs with Louis Vuitton leather mini shorts. \u201cAnd just remember that you can always layer something longer around them like a jacket or duster so then you really only see the front of the leg,\u201d Swennen says, describing a look that sounds almost exactly the way I first encountered this season\u2019s mini shorts at Gucci.<\/p>\n

Read GRAZIA USA<\/em>\u2019s Summer Issue featuring cover star Sienna Miller<\/a>:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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