Shorts

[Double 0 Soul]

It's grim January weather outside.. what better time for a shorts thread?

 

I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with shorts over the years.. back in my salad days, when i was skating and riding a lot i was never out of cargo/combat shorts, my shins were battered from pedal damage but at that age, i didn't really mind, i looked at them as battle scars.. come my 30s my shins were bumpy and the 'battle scars' had turned into broken veins, i became a bit self conscious of how battered my legs looked and kept them covered up, the only time i wore shorts was to do the decorating or the beach/swimming .. this made shit worse because my legs were always super-white.. then came a good 18yrs of total denim obsession where i would only ever wear jeans no matter what.. if it was 30° i'd be wearing jeans.. if it was -10 i'd be wearing jeans.. i'm over that now and rather than being perma-denimclad.. i just wears whatevers appropriate to my environment/activity.. if it's cold i'm wearing down and if it's hot.. i'm wearing shorts and my legs.. albeit a little scared look a lot less battered nowadays.. I digress.. 'Shorts' 

 

Back in the 90s i had quite a few pairs..a pair of Stussy shorts from their 'Superfly Gear' season in a washed out camo were my favourite.. they lasted me for years, i was never out of them, eventually they fell to pieces.. i was that attached to them i saved the top button .. i'll try and dig it out.. when we went to South America, i just bought a few pairs of ex-army cargo pants from JayJays the army surplus joint and got them hemmed into shorts at Terrace Tailors ..

 

I don't know about you guys but i don't think repro cuts work for shorts.. perfect as jeans because the loose thigh comes in at the knee but cut them down at or above the knee and they're too wide and drape like a skirt.. when my kid was a toddler and i had dad knees i cut some SC-47s down and they just looked comical, i gave them a cuff.. that didn't work either so rather than pay for a hem.. i just binned them.. it's the same with OG spec chinos, the top block is too deep and if you balance it by going past the knee as Cabourn does they look even worse.. whispering grass-esque.. it throws out all your proportions and makes you look shorter than you actually are... Ugh!

 

I like the Supreme Work shorts, they've been a staple summer release for decades, they just look like simple chino shorts but the boxy cut and midweight material is an absolute winner .. i don't think they've changed at all since the late 90s.. this was their 2015 line up

 

 

I've got a few pairs or their more conservative colours (khaki, navy and grey) which i've bought vintage and cheaply.

 

 

The only giveaway to the brand is the small box logo on the back pocket.. anyway, don't take my warped perspective as gospel.. what do you guys think/wear when the weather is too hot for jeans?

 

I can probably dig some more vintage shorts out the wardrobe.. let's see how the thread goes.

[indigoeagle]

When it's really hot I like to wear the FW M-1942 shorts, khaki and olive HBT.
Very happy with them.
Hopefully they get released again.

The Wild One stil has the khaki in 32 and olive in 30, I saw.
I have the khaki in 34 and the olive in 32. The 32 is a bit tight.

 

[Double 0 Soul]

They look like a good length.. and the hem certainly looks smaller than the thigh

[indigoeagle]

Yep, not wide, not long. I find them a good size.
Great sturdy fabric.
The rise is a bit higher, but fine, not excessive.

[julian-wolf]

I've got a slew of shorts at this point, but Sassafras are generally my favorite.

Here's my most-worn pair, the SF10484. They've held up incredibly well, and I’m really pleased with how the fabric’s aged. (Wet spots on the back are just from the table where I took the photos.)
 

 

 

 

 

[julian-wolf]

Great Lakes / Bubo also seems to have some great options, although I haven’t explored them much. I’d really like to try the PCT shorts, in particular, if they re-release them in another canvas.

My one pair are the Bushmaster shorts in a very tightly woven light cotton canvass, and they’re the only poorly thought out / executed thing that I’ve ever had from Freewheelers. The bar tacking (of which there’s quite a bit) is done at high density and with thick thread, which seems to have punched right through the finely woven fabric, weakening it significantly right at all the points of stress. Incidentally, I recently got a pair of shorts from Sassafras (don’t remember the model number) that seem to be made from the exact same fabric, and that seem to have the same issue. It’s possible that this specific fabric is just way more susceptible than expected to this sort of thing, but it still seems like a pretty major manufacturing & QC oversight.

Anyway, I have a sort of love / hate relationship with the Bushmaster shorts, as they really are well-designed and have aged beautifully in the short time that I’ve been wearing them. It’ll be a shame when they inevitably give out.

 

 

 

 

[Double 0 Soul]

Both pairs have an incredible amount of fading, they look great! what % would you say is down to wear/wash and what % the sun?

[julian-wolf]

@Double 0 Soul Yeah, I'm really pleased with how both are looking. The Sassafras, in particular, have seen quite a bit of very demanding wear, so it's no surprise that they've lightened up a good amount. That said, I'd say most of the fading on both pairs is from sun exposure. See the fly placket in the second photo of the Sassafras shorts, and the inside of the back pocket in the last photo of the Bushmasters—plus the interiors of both—for reference.

[julian-wolf]

Slow day…so here's a photo dump of some Sassafras action shots. Lots of really good times in these shorts.

[Double 0 Soul]

Years ago.. i had a SC Garrison belt in eu natural.. it was cream in colour, after nearly 6 months of wear in the UK, the colour was bordering on very pale beige.. i went to Sardinia, laid it out in the sun on the doorstep of the house where we were staying, came back from the beach and it was tanned to absolute perfection!

[Double 0 Soul]

2 minutes ago, julian-wolf said:

 

 

^ That's a really nice shot

[indigoeagle]

This is how the olive in 32 fit me.
The 34 is more comfy.

[Jambon]

Big short fan myself will wear them from April through to October if the weather permits. 
 

Current favourite is the RMC US Army Khaki short got a couple of pairs. Nice wide leg fit and decent length just above the knee. 
 

Will try and get some snaps up when the weather improves. 

[conqueror]

i live in australia and pretty much exclusively wear either patagonia baggies (5", also great for the beach), cut-off dickies 874s, or gramicci g-shorts in summer. i also have a pair of patagonia cord shorts that i like a lot, but i've gotten too fat for. would be open to trying something by orslow or maybe buzz, although i can't really stomach the (significant) additional cost as i get older.

edit: wow, sassafras is a blast from the past. i bought a pair on my second ever trip to japan (2009) and immediately destroyed them while jumping a fence on my return to australia haha.

Edited February 2 by conqueror

[reallypeacedoff]

Pair of Momo's that I turned into rollups.

[shredwin_206]

Runabout Goods shorts. Would prefer them about 2” shorter but maybe I’ll cuff em 

[JDelage]

Just received the FW Sidewinder from Seiichiro-san. I have been looking for non-jorts denim shorts for a while. Wearing them right now. So far, so good...

 

Edited July 11 by JDelage

[JDelage]

And another pair of FW shorts, this time the Boiler Maker, in wabash. Their waist is a tad lower than the Sidewinders’ (still pretty high), and they’re just a little bit longer. Supposed to be cut-offs, as evidence by the 34x34 tag.

 

Edited July 26 by JDelage

[julian-wolf]

SF10484 (above) were getting pretty thoroughly washed out, dipped them in a bath of coreopsis + iron for a new life

Also shown: Union Special short sleeved linen Western dyed with loquat leaves

[AlientoyWorkmachine]

@julian-wolf do you forage + make your own dyes or buy materials?

I've been dyeing with the walnuts in my backyard for awhile, but thinking of foraging some sumac berries this fall. I've also got baptisia tinctoria in my native garden (a "false" indigo, or yellow wild indigo), but I can't find any recipes for it even though it's been used as an indigo dye, albeit is considered an inferior one - still it could be cool to dye something light blue off of it if I could figure it out. 

[julian-wolf]

@AlientoyWorkmachine We’ve done some of both. The loquat leaves were foraged; in the past I’ve foraged plenty of eucalyptus, oak galls, mosses. Most of the flowers we’ve used have been from local farms, plus some from our or my mom’s garden. Every year I clean and save all of my avocado pits and skins, which are a lot of fun, and I’ve had friends give me shavings from projects using Brazil wood. The re-using waste / leftovers approach is a definite favorite.

I’ve also bought & used dried cochineal, turmeric, safflower, hibiscus, who knows what else…not to mention buying fully ready made kakishibu goo.

Collecting and prepping dye stuffs can be a really fun part of the process, but at the end of the day I’m so far removed from the production of the fabrics themselves, not to mention all the chemical mordants and additives, that it hardly feels like cheating to just buy something that’s a cool color and dump it in a pot. Store-bought cochineal and kakishibu, in particular, have been some of my absolute favorite projects.

[LazyS]