I don’t even care about clothes or fashion, yet this offends me:
As Ian Boudreau puts it (dunno how to link to FB comments):
A comprehensive list of times when it is appropriate to wear one of these:
1) You are on a huge stage playing “HIghway to Hell” for 20,000 screaming fans.
End of list.
I look at someone in that and all I can think is “PUNCHABLE.” And don’t tell me I have anger issues. If you don’t want to punch someone wearing that you are the one with the issues, not me.
Mike G
This is standard business attire in Bermuda.
And it should stay there.
pseudonymous in nc
I’d add:
2) You are a resident of Bermuda, in Bermuda.
But Bermuda shorts have to be contrasting.
A friend just got invited to a wedding where the dress code for men suggested formal shorts. This is clearly a thing and needs to be stopped.
David Koch
You know who else used to wear this
cthulhu
@David Koch: @David Koch: Wow, Godwin three comments in.
And yet I support that.
ulee
From Barfly:
Wanda: “I can’t stand people. Do you hate them?”
Henry: “No, but I seem to feel better when they’re not around.”
and as an added bonus:
Henry: “So what do you do?”
Wanda: “I drink.”
YellowJournalism
Wow, those look like they can go from business to fetish with a few small changes and a giant lollipop. A must-have for conservatives this summer!
Jordan Rules
I like it. But probably only on those 2 guys.
Joey Maloney
I don’t have the calves for it otherwise…
Anne Laurie
Ugh.
I’m with the Fug Girls — if the menswear merchants want to promote unseemly Pharrell-based fads, why couldn’t they have gone with the silly hat instead?
Anne Laurie
@Joey Maloney:
Not one man in a million has the calves for “it”. That’s why the Scots accessorize their kilts with knee-high, heavyweight socks (which also provide a convenient scabbard for the weapon you will need to defend yourself from people who find the very phrase “formal shorts” an abomination).
Arclite
I dunno, I’m kind of annoyed that while the black dude is wearing Italian wool, the guy wearing Japanese chambray has to be Asian.
Arclite
Of course shorts and a flowered shirt are business wear in Hawaii. We just don’t use ties out here. Except at funerals.
Major Major Major Major (formerly J.Ty)
I dunno, they’d both be on my shortlist for “Honey, may I?” if met at a party.
AdrianLesher
I couldn’t pull these off, but this isn’t something new. You’re over-reacting. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda_shorts
trollhattan
Jon Stewart killed it on the Bergdahl story tonight.
In the meantime, WTF Canada and Australia?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-10/tony-abbott-finds-friend-in-canadian-pm-harper-over-carbon-tax/5511252
Elizabelle
Global warming inspired fashion?
You could look spiffy climbing in and out of watercraft, traveling through the flooded streets.
Amir Khalid
Mind you, Angus Young isn’t wearing Bermuda shorts. His signature outfit is an Aussie school uniform.
Major Major Major Major (formerly J.Ty)
And yes, Cole, of course you’re overreacting. Well, I guess the actual overreaction would be crossing the line from “thinking ‘punchable'” to “actually punching”, but still, thinking ‘punchable’ when faced with non-normative clothing is a little… I don’t want to say homophobic, but there’s a word around here somewhere for that, and it’s not a positive one.
Villago Delenda Est
@Major Major Major Major (formerly J.Ty): Well, I agree that “punchable” should be reserved for asswipes like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and everyone of both sexes in the Village.
You know, as in actually punching. Over and over and over again.
Major Major Major Major (formerly J.Ty)
@Villago Delenda Est: Right, which is why applying it to a dude in bermuda shorts is kind of weird.
TheMightyTrowel
@trollhattan: I can’t answer for Canada (harper has been a blot on their otherwise Moose-tastic landscape for far too long) but polls suggest that most of us are finally pretty humiliated by Abbott and those of use on the left are still headdesking over the election results last year.
NotMax
Several items which caught the eye.
The number of ‘security requests’ growing like Topsy on steroids.
In other news:
And, Brit comedian Rik Mayall dies at 56. Like or loathe his comedy, he was a groundbreaker.
NotMax
Frankly, they both look like overage British schoolboys. On the other hand, anything is an improvement over saggers.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
Rest in peace, Alan B’stard.
wasabi gasp
Channel your inner winner. Think paunchable.
Fred
They would be just adorable with a bow tie and a cute hat, maybe a beanie copter. And why not go the whole nine and make the jackets short sleeve too.
Somehow brings to mind a 1970 “Look Magazine” prediction of fashions of the future. Not that they predicted anything quite that silly but they tried.
Montarvillois
The designers can charge the same or more for this nouveau “business wear” concoction and save some money on fabric. Bonus, no bothersome hemming required.
raven
who
raven
cares
Splitting Image
Well, it makes a switch from advocating violence against women who show too much leg, but I’m damned if I can tell the difference.
Debbie(aussie)
@trollhattan: Ashamed to be Australian with Mr Rabbot representing us.
WereBear
Global warming, dude.
Viva BrisVegas
This is a fashion outrage.
Who ever heard of formal shorts without long white socks and leather sandals?
Keith G
Wow.
Except for Raven, this seems like a collective pout of “Get off my lawn!!”
Barbara O'Brien
@Anne Laurie: I’d always heard the Scots kept a knife in the scabbard in case somebody tried to see what they were wearing under the kilt.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: @WereBear: That’s the great thing about BJ, if you read through the comments there’s usually someone who has already said what you wanted to.
Global warming!
C.V. Danes
Looks like something that would be a hit with the geeks over in Silicon Valley.
J R in WV
How many of us are at the top of our form at 2:37 am?
John isn’t threatening to punch these nice looking guys, just blowing up at the unbelievable thing some fashion designer put them in. The fashion designer here is the person who is committing fashion crime. The photog is an accessory before the fact.
I will allow that in the tropics this would pass for formal attire at a funeral or in court. Once Climate Change has done its work we can revisit where the tropics are – if Bethany and points north become tropical, perhaps we will all be wearing different stuff.
I personally am a tee-shirt with shorts person, rather than suit-coat. The heavy wool top seems to undo all that is accomplished with the shorts… aside from how it looks, which NO salesman could pass off to me as “What everyone is wearing these days!”
How about a nice side dish of plaids and stripes?
revrick
Let’s see. The top half says business and the bottom half says beach. Isn’t that like putting whipped cream on a porterhouse steak?
RSA
I used to wear a gray wool suit with short pants. I hated it, but a four-year-old didn’t have much say in getting dressed up back in the 1960s. (The wool was scratchy.)
Chyron HR
“My feet are soaked, but my cuffs are bone-dry! Everything’s coming up Milhouse!”
debbie
Not as bad as when they tried to introduce skirts for men back in the 1980s.
lorimakesquilts
Hahaha. My 75 year old mother has a picture college picture with a friend in the same outfit. Funny then, funny now.
Bobby Thomson
@Splitting Image: This.
Bobby Thomson
@J R in WV:
Bull fucking shit.
Lee
As a Dad with 2 teenage daughters I’ve had to have a high tolerance for odd fashion. I’m not sure I was go so far as to it being punchable, but it is certainly in the point-and-laugh category.
Jack the Second
@David Koch: To be fair, he’s totally pulling it off.
big ole hound
Hey it looks better than jeans, which seem to be OK for everything here in CA.
Ash Can
Not punchable, but if I were in a business setting and someone walked in wearing that, I’d bust out laughing. And if I were in charge, I’d make him go home and change.
Bex
@Barbara O’Brien: Nothing to see.
schrodinger's cat
I kinda like shorts of that length for me, not too short, not too long. In fact that and some loose shirt was my uniform on my India trip, last month. Comfortable, but not sloppy or scandalous.
sparrow
eh, both those guys would look super hot in pretty much anything. OTOH, normal people would look pretty dang stupid. I dislike shorts + jacket for the same reason I dislike women’s shirts with collars but no sleeves — it looks totally unbalanced as far as distribution of fabric.
But I find conventional clothing to be boring — who gives a crap what you wear as long as it is comfortable, and not insanely distracting (for professional environments anyway).
Joel
@Major Major Major Major (formerly J.Ty): looks like something Brooks Brothers runs out in their “douche” line.
shelley
My thoughts exactly.
Why do they look so Little Lord Fauntleroy rather than Summer Postal Worker?
Harold Samson
John Cole is absolutely correct.
shortstop
Vintage Cole. Loved every word.
Roman
As noted in the first two comments, this is standard office wear in Bermuda, where I grew up – BUT, they aren’t wearing the proper socks, black in colour and extending to just below the knees.
Roman
@shelley: It’s the lack of socks as noted in my previous comment
Bill D.
@debbie: Hey, men have been wearing skirts in various cultures around the world for thousands of years. See for example Fiji, Samoa, and Myanmar. Don’t forget ancient Egypt.
schrodinger's cat
@Bill D.: India too!
Veshtis and Lungis
Aaron
Global warming finally had an impact on fashion ….
EthylEster
JC wrote: I look at someone in that and all I can think is “PUNCHABLE.” And don’t tell me I have anger issues. If you don’t want to punch someone wearing that you are the one with the issues, not me.
I guess you are joking. But seriously, dude, you might want to dial it back a bit.
Rage is not a solution for everything.
Bill D.
@schrodinger’s cat: Facepalm. Biggest example there is, although it’s a pretty ethnically diverse country with a lot of variety in its customs.
shortstop
@EthylEster: See, I don’t hear any rage in his voice. Only hyperbole for the purpose of making a point. It’s weird that people — maybe new readers here? — seem to think he’s truly angry.
kuvasz
I would rather wear a kilt.
schrodinger's cat
@Bill D.: True, both the dhoti and the saree can be worn in several different ways. There is a lot a regional variation. There are two main variations though, the cloth (sari or dhoti) goes around your waist like either a skirt or like pants. In general Saris are longer because they have to cover the top half too.
Peter VE
I think Tim Gunn would endorse Coles view.
Villago Delenda Est
@kuvasz: Aye. That’s a man’s leg exposure garment.
schrodinger's cat
@Villago Delenda Est: Unfortunately, not many men have legs worth exposing.
Lawrence
It’s going to be 107 in Phoenix today. It’s 84 now, at 8am, and that feels lovely. So I can tell you the problem with a suit in hot weather is not confined to the pants length. It’s the jacket, the shirtsleeves, the choke collar and tie. And the car. Yes, you need one to get anywhere here. The inside of mine is all black plastic and black leather. Add 10 to 20 degrees to the ambient temperature when it’s been baking for eight hours.
Anoniminous
@schrodinger’s cat:
Harsh, yet accurate.
Tractarian
If you lived in a sub-tropical climate and had a job with a dress code, I guarantee you would feel differently.
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
@Tractarian:
I live and work in the Valley of the Sun (aka, “Joe Arpaio County”) which has a sub-tropical climate in a “really fucking hot though they say it’s a dry heat” way. And I guarantee no one here would even think of wearing anything like these ridiculous outfits for work.
Well, maybe not quite no one – I had a field technician (commercial & industrial building construction) who actually showed up at a job-site a few years back wearing some sort of matching top with shorts get-up. Never saw anything like it before or since. Told him to go home and change and never show up dressed like that again.
A grown-ass man in our culture should wear long pants to work, period. You’re not a child any longer, which is what you look like in shorts (I’m enough of a curmudgeon to find that the case even outside of work, unless you’re at the beach or pool or engaged in some sporting activity requiring shorts, like basketball or tennis or some damn thing like that).
Now put your fucking pants on and get off my lawn!
Mnemosyne
@Spinoza Is My Co-pilot:
There are a few guys at my office who wear shorts to work. But (A) we have a (very) casual workplace and (B) they wear cargo shorts or similar long shorts (basically knee-length khakis) with a t-shirt or polo shirt, not a suit jacket.
It’s the jacket that makes it look weird, like you’re trying to pretend you didn’t have an accident on the L-train that ripped your pants off below the knee. If you’re going to wear shorts, freakin’ wear shorts and don’t put an apologetic suit jacket over them.
Anoniminous
High end, high fashion, retailers are salivating at the – in their eyes – “under served” men’s market. That their offerings make the wearer look like a prat and no man in his right mind would buy them has yet to cross their little minds.
LAC
@AdrianLesher: Cole overreacting ? Is it a day the ends in “day”? Because that is usually the day he overreacts to something.
Robert
Perfectly appropriate attire for a cosplayer doing a school uniform costume at a convention. Actual business attire? Nope.
Theron Ware
Sorry, but there is absolutely no way to dress up shorts!
Hank
It just reminds me of Steve Martin in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
LongHairedWeirdo
I don’t know. The *only* think I can think of these as being appropriate for is visiting the “headmistress” who is going to inform you that if you’ve been acting like a child, she’s going to *treat* you like a child, so drop those trousers, you naughty boy.
Which, while titillating for them as into that stuff, isn’t the impression I assume the designers are looking for.
(The worst part – the cuffs at the end of the jacket sleeves. They’re not even apparently wearing short-sleeved shirts!)
Anne Laurie
@debbie:
Hey, skirts (sarongs) make total sense in hot weather. You get the advantage of air flow, without sticking to the chair (or getting sand in sensitive places) when you sit down. And properly cut, a skirt spares everyone else a view of one’s overhanging paunch, bowlegs, knobbly knees, hairy calves…
Joel
@Tractarian: IIRC, men are obligated to wear pants in Thailand and other parts of SE Asia, and I would argue that their climate is more tropical than sub-.
schrodinger's cat
@Joel: In India too, where I was for the last three weeks, men wear pants at work, temperatures were in the 80s and 90s with almost 100% humidity. Short sleeved shirts were OK and no ties or jackets.
Lou from Here
Ha. I want one. I think it’s cool. I’d wear it here if I had one.
Ron Fournier
@Lou from Here: I wear a suit with shorts to work every day in DC. Top Democrats tell me it shows leadership.
poptartacus
you have anger issues
sherifffruitfly
what i find weirdest about this is that they specifically chose chicken-wing-legged dudes for the pics.