Concorde: Great Shorts Report
Let your stems shine!
Welcome to Concorde, a bimonthly edition of the sletter where Erin takes the lead. You could call it a women’s vertical, but the insights, intel and “cute swag information” transcend gender. The full Concorde archive lives here…
Concorde back once again… And today we’re going long on shorts, in a Choose Your Own Adventure of lengths — from sporty hot pants to culottes that hit at the knee to jorts (yes!!) that fall far below it. I’m calling out new pieces for ladies (and the fellas) by independent labels, AND we’ve got some unisex and vintage jawns in the mix, too.
For an immersive multimedia experience, I’m going to start with the shortest shorts and “let out the inseam” as you scroll down… Let’s get to it!
After a long, cold, wet California winter, shorts wormed themselves back into my brain in early April — before the weather had even turned temperate — when I spotted a fantastic pair of ‘50s satin basketball shorts for sale at the Alameda Flea Market. Why was I so drawn to them? Was it their chic little self-belt? The luxe-seeming satiny material? The fact that men used to wear these glammy beauties to perform masculine rituals of dunking on their fellow bros?
I didn’t cop, but a couple days later, two very similar, very fine specimens from L.A.’s Moth Food floated across my IG feed — and my obsession grew. These “sporty shorties” are my answer to Miu Miu’s fall “underpants,” and part of their deceptive versatility is that they read as casual or dressed-up depending on your footwear: socks with loafers / sneakers / shower slides versus heeled sandals.
Chloë Sevigny wearing Adidas short shorts in 2019 to SET THE TONE.
These 1940s basketball shorts from L.A.’s Mothfood are now sold out 🙁 but I tracked down a few similar pairs, new & secondhand alike …