Fashion can make you really petty. In fact, it's most fun when there's a fight. And these spring/summer 07 menswear shows are stoking the battle, because tailored shorts and their weird hybrids have dominated the minds of designers. Those who have spent the past few months whining about men in shorts will be tenfold-vexed next year. Ha!
It's a vindication of sorts, because so many men have seen the sense in tailored shorts, even though they've been put up to ridicule. Topman sold out. The British designer Oliver Spencer says that Liberty went through 100 pairs of his. This isn't a fashion whim but a natural progression of a certain hot-weather logic.
Next summer's shorts will rise slightly higher. Often the tailoring was traditional, like the pleated, front-creased white shorts at Dolce & Gabbana. But at two of the sort of shows that turn me giddy, the ideas were profligate. My favourites were at Prada, which had shorts in orange patent, in what looked like skintight neoprene, or with a painted dot and zig-zag print. Many were repulsed by the collection. Clearly, it's the affront that menswear needs.
At Raf Simons, the shorts sat away from the leg, often with a windowpane check. The style veered from cut-off trouser to a voluminous, nappy-like effect. A by-product at both Simons and Prada has been a renewed focus on sandals, which were best in mustard patent worn with thick socks at Prada, or with straps rising above the ankle at Simons, like wearing a leg splint at a Roman theme park in space.
Of course, the carping continues. The New York Times spoke recently of "the unfortunate trouser length" at mid-calf that is "blighting the streets of London". Shame that one of the biggest advocates of mid-calf shorts is a New Yorker: Thom Browne.
· Charlie Porter is associate editor of GQ (m-f-a-s@hotmail.com).
