Friday, June 6, 2008

Rugby Shorts Make The Grade

Men's shorts sure didn't change much in the 90's. Cargo shorts in khaki, cinnamon, brown, green and camo became the golden standard, and summer after summer, nobody seemed to come forward with a successor. Over the past few summers, J Crew and Brooks Brothers brought us preppy innovations: more traditional Bermuda shorts with repeating preppy symbols such as ship anchors, sailboats, and swordfish:

Once the cut was popularized, seersucker and love-it-or-hate-it Madras patchwork took the stage:

A great piece of innovation, though, is coming out of Rugby: the same preppy repeat-patterns done in waterproof fabric for swimwear (as evidenced by the blue pair on top):


What's the next men's shorts innovation?