The Deacon's Bench
Retailers are starting to push a new trend in menswear: the short suit.
The ensemble looks like a regular suit from the waist up, with a sport coat over a button-down shirt and sometimes a tie or bowtie. Instead of trousers, however, the suit’s bottoms are cropped at the knee.
J. Crew, Topman, Asos, and Barneys are among the retailers selling the short suit this season. They may be taking cues from fashion icon Pharrell Williams, who donned tuxedo shorts to the Academy Awards earlier this year.
“It’s definitely having a moment, particularly with younger guys,” Jon Patrick, the creative director at menswear company J.Hilburn, told Businessweek.
J. Crew is offering four different kinds of short suits that cost about $400.
“We have wanted to make a suit short for a long time but knew it had to be just right for it to look good,” reads the product description for one of the suits. “We would like to finally introduce you to the Ludlow short. It has an old-school country club vibe (more ‘Gatsby,’ less ‘Caddyshack’) and is almost guaranteed to win the battle for best-dressed at nearly every summer occasion.”
Shorts with cuffs? Really?
Wake me when it’s autumn.
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