HOT PANTS
Make Us Scream And Shout, I Love You Baby
Forever immortalized by music icon Rod Stewart (love ya, honey), leg-baring short shorts have made their way onto runways off and on for decades, and like it or not, hot pants are back, y’all.
Now that the long parade of Spring 2020 shows has ended and gone to market, buyers from all over the world have now rushed to the first order of business: discerning the most impactful trends of the season. After wading through carryover trends such as bold neon and feathers, hot pants shined through as an item worth reexamining.
Love them or hate them, hot pants were all over this Spring/Summer season’s runways, and they promise to be one of the biggest trends for 2020. After having first appeared in the 1950s (much to the dismay of conservative dressers), super-short shorts have continued to pop up here and there throughout the years. The actual term “hot pants” pushed its way into the lexicon in the 1970s, with other names like “les shorts,” “short cuts,” and “shortootsies” not exactly gaining as much traction. Unfortunately, today’s version has been blessed with the gross “booty shorts” moniker. Their most recent resurgence occurred in the early 2000s, which wasn’t exactly a banner era for fashion. This time around, hot pants are getting the high-fashion treatment that was missing from its early-aughts reincarnation.
From meticulously-crafted knit versions at Hermes and Ferragamo, to Daisy-Duke-territory at Chanel, hot pants made a bold and, dare we say, downright triumphant return to the runway. Other designers such as Tom Ford, Isabel Marant and Brandon Maxwell got in on the action, too. Marant masterfully balanced out the leg-baring proportions of the ultra-short shorts by pairing them with long sleeves and jackets. Over at Chanel, although the most memorable moment of the house’s Spring 2020 show occurred when a YouTuber literally gatecrashed the runway, the moment most people remember when it comes to the actual fashion is the parade of hot pants. Chanel made sure to put a true Chanel-esque elevated spin on the trend by pairing the shorts with black tights.
The wait for Spring/Summer 2020 to start hitting stores continues to get shorter, and apparently, the shorts themselves are shrinking, too. Instead of instantly running from a silhouette that continues to fall victim to bad branding, take some time to look at the latest shows from some of your favorite designers. The modern re-mastering of the hot pant will make your legs look a mile long without bordering on risqué, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with putting those gams on full display.
