Inside every pair of pants are shorts waiting to be set free
Shorts Report 2025
Concorde is Blackbird Spyplane’s “women’s vertical” that the fellas love as well. Every edition is archived here.
In 2023, I (Erin) put out a Shorts Report so clairvoyant that I was able to take 2 years off from shorts reportage. You could rock any of the pairs I saluted back then and still look ahead of the curve today. Imagine if we were the type of sletter that lied to you and said you need to buy different shorts every year!
Shorts can perplex even the Mach 3+ among us. But I maintain that they are much easier to wear than pants, because they avoid the dangerous Footwear-Ankle-Pant (F.A.P.) Interface that has tripped up even the most advanced dressers. Think of it this way: You probably wear some shirts with long sleeves, and some shirts with short sleeves. Shorts are simply the t-shirts of the legs.
Before you invest in any new pairs, I’d recommend playing around with cropping old pants you no longer have in rotation. I’ve included some tips for how to make cutoffs you’ll actually wear, and you can use one of the pairs you like below as a guide for the length you want to try.
If you wear either pants or skirts — so, ~100% of us — then a pair of shorts below should suit you. I consider most of them to be unisex in flavor (Jonah also recently rounded up a gang of men’s shorts here). The ones I’m personally most interested in these days hit lower and have voluminous hems that edge into skirt and pant territory.. After all, inside every pair of pants is a pair of shorts waiting to be set free!
Let’s get to it —