Addressed: How to Wear Shorts (and Look Good Doing It)

Vogue

22-05-2025

Introducing Addressed, a weekly column where we'll, ahem, address the joys (and tribulations!) of getting dressed. We'll look at runway and real-life trends, talk to people whose style we love, and, most importantly, answer your fashion queries. Download the Vogue app and find our Style Advice section to submit your question.
As soon as the temperatures start to rise in late spring, I start thinking about idyllic warm-weather outfits for summer vacations still months away. Having just come back from Australia, where the Sydneysiders were characteristically showing off their love of shorts, I returned to New York ready to figure out the chicest way to show off a little (or a lot of) leg. In this edition of Addressed, we're answering the eternal question of how to wear shorts—and look good doing it.
When talking about shorts, we first have to deal with the issue of length. Last year I declared that the nu-metal short—slightly baggy with hems right below the knee—the fit of the summer, and while looking through the recent collections, it seems that designers have agreed to keep it going for another season. That's great news for me; I wasn't ready to give them up. However, they aren't the only contenders; two years after Miuccia Prada proposed the idea that panties are acceptable bottoms to wear out in the world, micro shorts (their slightly more modest counterpart) are coming in strong. These opposing ideas—long, baggy, and masculine coded or extra short and literally inspired by women's underwear—actually make sense together. The times call for decisive ideas and decisive style; now is not the moment for wishy-washy, half-baked concoctions. We're going all or nothing.
Having said that, the approach to dressing up both is basically the same. The biggest takeaway from the runways this year is to turn shorts into part of a suit or a coordinated ensemble. Imagine you're wearing a prim and proper skirt suit but then swap the skirt for shorts: At Valentino, cropped crochet jackets topped off lace-trim short shorts, while at Dries Van Noten, printed silk long shorts were worn with contrasting, just-as-relaxed silk jackets; in both instances the looks were fully put together. When you look at them, you see a whole look and not just a pair of shorts.
But you don't have to go all out in heels and full makeup to make this foolproof formula work. At Willy Chavarria, for example, cutoff acid-wash jorts were paired with a button-down shirt and matching tie and topped off with an oversized jean jacket. There's nothing fussy about the look; because every piece is considered, the effect is cooler than cool and never sloppy.