Long Shorts

Long Shorts

This year that increasingly flexible standard has stretched to encompass shorts, of all things — not the tight-fitting Daisy Duke variety, but crisply tailored, razor-creased versions with hemlines that hover chastely at the knees. Called city shorts by some of the merchants who promote them, they are intended, as the name suggests, to be worn around town and on the job.

"Women of every age and type are embracing shorts," said Stephanie Solomon, a women's fashion director at Bloomingdale's, where sales of elongated, street-worthy styles are outpacing dresses as the first retail hit of the spring. Still, for stores like Bloomingdale's, which heralded spring as the season of the dress, the success of shorts confounded expectations.

"We felt the dress would overpower shorts because it was something you could wear to work," Ms. Solomon said. But many women are buying shorts instead because, she said, they too "are acceptable now at the office."

And well beyond. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a host of "The View" on ABC, strolled down Spring Street in SoHo last Friday wearing a pair of tapered shorts from Theory with a snug denim jacket. She was carrying a quilted leather Marc Jacobs bag. Her ensemble had taken her from a business meeting to a quasi-formal lunch and shopping. "These shorts are serious and refined," she said, "but they have some travel in them."

So versatile are the new shorts that quite a few women said they were stockpiling them, buying multiples at chains like Zara and Marshalls, where they sell for under $100, and snapping up more extravagant alternatives at citadels of luxury like Chanel, where shorts range in price from $800 to about $1,100. Most were gussying them up for the city with cashmere cardigans, linen jackets, brief coats and wide belts.

"Shorts are definitely a movement, very strong," said Wayne Mahler, the fashion coordinator of Linda Dresner, the boutique in Manhattan and Birmingham, Mich. Sought-after looks vary from cargo shorts by Dsquared to more formal knee-length versions in khaki, white cotton and tropical wool. Customers routinely couple favorite styles from houses like Tuleh and Marni with jackets and three-quarter coats. "As part of an ensemble, they acquire a bit of seriousness," Mr. Mahler said, "and that's what's turned this into a very popular look."

So successful, in fact, that retailers and consumers alike are championing shorts as the jaunty foundation of a spring wardrobe, one as functional as jeans, but with a surprise hint of refinement. "Compared to some jeans, shorts are a step toward civilization," said David Wolfe, a creative director with the Doneger Group, which forecasts retail trends.
Long Shorts

Long Shorts

Long Shorts

Long Shorts

Long Shorts

Long Shorts

Long Shorts

Long Shorts

Long Shorts

Long Shorts