{"id":722,"date":"2026-06-19T11:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T11:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=722"},"modified":"2026-06-19T11:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T11:38:18","slug":"why-shorts-might-be-coming-to-an-office-near-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=722","title":{"rendered":"Why Shorts Might Be Coming to an Office Near You"},"content":{"rendered":"
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American dress codes seem<\/span> to grow more lenient by the day. Jeans, sneakers, and T-shirts are ubiquitous among so-called white-collar workers. The taboo against shorts in professional settings, however, has endured. Here in Washington, D.C., the hot, humid summer air feels like a dog\u2019s breath in your face. But legions of male office workers are expected to keep their legs bundled up, even as their female co-workers shiver in the air-conditioned chill. When I exposed my knees at the office recently\u2014I\u2019d biked to work and hadn\u2019t had a chance to change, I swear\u2014I triggered a lively discussion on Slack. I was made to understand that shorts were for children.<\/p>\n

Read more The Price of Defeat in Iran<\/a><\/p>\n

Why does the no-shorts rule cling so stubbornly to life, like trousers stuck to sweaty thighs in June? No one has a satisfying answer. It might be the most illogical fashion convention still standing. That means its days are probably numbered, and the glorious era of leg liberation is nigh.<\/p>\n

There was a time when shorts<\/span> really were for little boys. In the late-Victorian period, British schools adopted short pants for the youngest male students. This practice eventually spilled over into non-Commonwealth countries. Steve Knorsch, the U.S. managing director for the men\u2019s clothier Cad & the Dandy, told me that at his all-boys school in 1970s Belgium, he wore shorts as part of his uniform\u2014along with knee-length socks, a blazer, and a tie\u2014until he was old enough for pants.<\/p>\n

The association between shorts and children was still strong in 1932, when the diminutive English tennis star Bunny Austin decided he was done running around in \u201csweat-soaked trousers,\u201d as he later put it, and debuted shorts at the U.S. National Championships. \u201cWith his white linen hat and his flannel shorts, the little English player looked like an A. A. Milne production,\u201d The New York Times <\/i>observed. Perhaps he did have an air of Christopher Robin about him, but Austin would go on to make two Wimbledon finals and introduce shorts to Centre Court. He lost the matches, but shorts won the war. In genteel athletic contexts, at least, grown men could shed their pants without worrying what the Times<\/i> might say.<\/p>\n

The fashion historian James Laver observes that menswear tends to originate on the sports field or the battlefield. During World War II, a huge number of British and Commonwealth soldiers wore shorts in Africa, popularizing the look. \u201cAfter the war, you\u2019re going to get a hell of a lot of khaki shorts in Army and Navy stores and things like that,\u201d the eminent menswear journalist G. Bruce Boyer told me. \u201cSo guys started to wear them to wash the car, and then maybe even to play golf, and so forth.\u201d In the \u201950s, Bermuda shorts\u2014a knee-length trouser accepted as formal wear on that island and absolutely nowhere else\u2014caught on among the country-club set.<\/p>\n

But a firewall held strong between the settings where shorts were appropriate\u2014the club, the beach, a barbecue\u2014and the office, where they weren\u2019t. Boyer remembers American fashion brands trying to sell men\u2019s suits with short trousers as far back as the \u201950s. \u201cThe reason you\u2019re not aware of it,\u201d he said, \u201cis because it didn\u2019t work at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shorts remained forbidden even as other pillars of the office dress code crumbled. Jeans were originally blue-collar work wear. T-shirts used to be undergarments. Polo shirts went from the golf course to the conference room. A decade ago, athletic shoes were still mostly frowned on; now office floors squeak under the tread of chunky Hokas. The recently enacted U.S. Senate dress code, known informally as the SHORTS Act, requires a jacket, a tie, and\u2014you guessed it\u2014long pants. But it doesn\u2019t mention footwear. These days, even members of Congress stalk the Capitol in sneakers.<\/p>\n

The clear trend is toward comfort. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, just 3 percent of Americans wear a suit to work most days. Forty-one percent said they wear \u201cbusiness casual clothes,\u201d and 31 percent said they wear street clothes. \u201cThese codes do change over time,\u201d Derek Guy, a fashion writer better known as the Menswear Guy, told me. \u201cI can\u2019t give you a reason why, somehow, shorts have been a little more stubborn.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed for an explanation, several experts brought up the former fashion designer Tom Ford. In a 2011 interview with Another Man <\/i>magazine, Ford outlined his \u201cfive easy lessons in how to be a modern gentleman.\u201d Things were going fine (Lesson 4: Don\u2019t be racist or sexist) until the final lesson: \u201cShorts should only be worn on the tennis court or on the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more The Job Market Is Thawing<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of people really took that to heart and were like, Oh, fuck, this is up there with being a gentleman<\/i>,\u201d Avery Trufelman, the host of the fashion podcast Articles of Interest<\/i>, told me. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s too far afield to say part of the stigma, especially in America, comes from Tom Ford.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through his publicist, Ford declined to be interviewed for this article. This leaves us to speculate about why shorts might be deemed ungentlemanly. One possibility is that they simply look bad. Certainly, if they\u2019re too long, shorts can visually shorten the legs, which is not particularly flattering. Maybe that\u2019s why the 5-foot-7 Tom Cruise wears full-length jeans, not shorts, while playing beach volleyball in Top Gun<\/i>. The easy solution is to wear shorts that stop a few inches above the knee. To some shorts skeptics, though, that particular cure would be worse than the disease. \u201cNobody wants to see your hairy legs,\u201d Knorsch said. \u201cEven if a male body can be very attractive, those long hairy sticks that sit below the waist are not very probably appetizing to look at.\u201d This calls to mind the Curb Your Enthusiasm <\/i>episode in which Larry David finds himself sitting on an airplane next to a pale middle-aged man wearing shorts. \u201cLet me give you a little tip for travel,\u201d Larry says. \u201cTry not to wear shorts. It\u2019s not all that attractive to look at for five hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem with this theory is the inconsistency with which it\u2019s invoked. If men\u2019s legs were really so unsightly, then they would be considered ugly everywhere\u2014but they aren\u2019t. There\u2019s no reason a body part that looks fine at a beer garden or a summer party should suddenly turn grotesque the moment a desk and a laptop appear. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything objectively wrong with them,\u201d Trufelman said. \u201cI just looked out the window at two guys wearing shorts, and I thought they looked quite stylish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, even if shorts were<\/i> inherently bad-looking, that still wouldn\u2019t quite explain the rule, because ugly clothes are a staple of casual office attire. A guy wearing a polo shirt and khakis might be complying with the office dress code, but he\u2019s also wearing a dork uniform. He might be better off with a nice pair of shorts, loafers, and, say, a linen or lightweight cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up. For more information, consult Jude Law\u2019s character in The Talented Mr. Ripley<\/i>.<\/p>\n

As is so often the case<\/span>, a rule binding one of the sexes ends up making both worse off. Because men are expected to wear long pants, office thermostats are set to unreasonably cold temperatures in the summer. Women, dressed sensibly for the weather in skirts and sleeveless blouses, end up shivering all day. It\u2019s a waste of energy and money that makes as much sense as banning sweaters in winter.<\/p>\n

Times change. Summers keep getting hotter. In April, as the U.S.-Iran war sent energy prices spiking, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike announced that government workers could wear shorts to the office. \u201cThere are fewer and fewer layers to take off, and people are now down to shorts,\u201d she explained to reporters. This year\u2019s World Cup is the first to mandate a water break for players midway through each half. (They also get to wear shorts to work.)<\/p>\n

Shorts seem destined to one day join sneakers and jeans as acceptable office attire. In a 2023 Wall Street Journal <\/i>poll, the position that shorts are never acceptable in an office setting received majority support from only one group: those who were 58 and older. These Baby Boomers are the bosses of American workplaces, but they won\u2019t be forever. Seventy-five percent of Millennials said that \u201cit can sometimes be appropriate\u201d for a man to wear shorts to the office. Eventually, the male knee will be set free. Once that happens, it will be hard to remember why anyone was so afraid of it.<\/p>\n

Read more The Black Soldiers who Changed the Meaning of the Civil War<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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