WHAT AM I THINKING? Lidewij Edelkoort shares personal insights into what’s going through her mind…
Just before Covid, we visited Seattle to work with the creative team of Nordstrom, my first time in that cool city. After a day or so I realised that apart from the very nice customs officers, I hadn’t seen one man in trousers; the whole city was dedicated to shorts. Shorts on bikers and bankers and bakers, on juniors and seniors, even on the homeless. Men were unanimous in their refusal of regular slacks or fatigues, their styles differed a bit from safari, mostly in drab colours like beige, khaki and faded indigo. Occasionally, some butts were paraded in the shortest fringed denim shorts; the Summer of Love revisited as a Summer of Business as Usual. Why did Seattle’s men love to show their legs? Was it freedom or vanity, or both, was the question!
Seven years later, the recent men’s fashion shows in Milan and Paris are showing everything from bermudas to boxers to bloomers, with the longest and slimmest men’s legs possible. Adorable. Often worn with fluid blazers, soft shirting and a tie, or coordinated shirt jackets, sometimes with high rising socks and mules, looking aloof and almost comical.
This shock is as powerful as the arrival of the hotpants when I was in art school in the late 60s. My teacher reprimanded me for the length of my shorts and sent me home to dress better. That much leg was never heard of and offensive to society at large yet adored by us fashion-driven people with style. We loved showing off our legs and put them on a pedestal of serious wedges, wobbling through the streets, holding on to the arms of young protective lovers. The indecency of the garment was the essence of its character that coincided with student protests and cannabis culture.
This moment illustrated the hemline-index by George Taylor, an American economist who coined the theory that rising hemlines (as in dancing flapper dresses) coincided with rising business on the stock markets in 1926. He used his index to forecast falling values when dresses dropped their hemlines.
The shorter the skirt, the stronger the economy is how the theory goes, so now I wonder if the shortening of trousers can be seen as part of the same index; and is possibly an even stronger indication, since it takes more courage for a man to expose his legs than for a woman. Does this mean that men’s sense of dress is an even greater indicator of where things are going?
Well, let’s analyse!
Hair today is any length, neatly folded into buns when long, a samurai symbol of strength (almost Samsonesque). Shoulders are back with more structure and tailoring, the days of casual clothes are definitely over for now. Suiting is the new name of the game, business-minded but fluid with soft fabrics and amazing colours from chartreuse to melon, prune and eggplant. So, not business as usual, but business as pleasure and play; money business, hospitality business and real estate business. Belts are mandatory, pearls often too. All this spells prosperity and vanity, doesn’t it?
Therefore, even in these times of civil, trade and power wars, we can definitely conclude that we should re-name the index into the short-length-index which, if we believe Muccia Prada, someone who knows how to make a profit, the economy will be at an all-time high in the seasons to come. Her baby bloomers are the shortest yet to hit the streets. And hit they will; frankly, irresistible.
– L.E.
June 27th 2025