Short takes

Expect to see more hairy legs on the street and in office, as men are now willing to show more skin

Expect to see more hairy legs on the street and in office, as men are now willing to show more skin

FIRST came Casual Fridays, inviting men to trade in suits for Dockers and a daring flash of masculine deacute;colletage. Then the bare ankle migrated from country-club Saturdays to meeting-room Mondays and suddenly men, whether shod in wingtips or loafers, were widely seen without socks. Now the men of the white collar work force are marching into the office in shorts.

Richter7, an advertising agency in Salt Lake City, introduced a no-long-trousers policy this summer. 8220;We try to have a little bit of fun around here on a regular basis,8221; said Dave Newbold, the president of Richter7.

When Dallas Stars hockey star Sean Avery took an internship at Vogue earlier this summer, the work uniform that the fashion-besotted left wing chose included a shorts suit that showcased his athletic calves. 8220;Why go to work and be hot?8221; he asked last week, 8220;You can look good and not have that boring-type look.8221;

The willingness of men to display more skin can be gauged by the short-sleeved shirts Senator Barack Obama has lately favoured; the muscle T-shirts Anderson Cooper wears on CNN assignment; and the Armani billboard in which David Beckham, the soccer star, appears nearly nude.

8220;We have all these self-imposed restrictions8221;, said Ben Clawson, the sales director for designer Michael Bastian. 8220;As men8217;s wear becomes a little more casual, it8217;s not impossible anymore to be dressed up in shorts.8221; While Bastian is a designer of preppy classics, even he has pushed for greater latitude in exposing men8217;s bodies to view. 8220;Michael is a big fan of the third button,8221; said Clawson, referring to the neckline plunge. 8220;For women, legs are a sex symbol, where for men legs are more private,8221; he added.

Yet for Avery, a man in a shorts suit is no more startling than a woman in a miniskirt. 8220;I8217;m sure women like looking at a man8217;s calves, or if a man has them, nice ankles,8221; he said. But none of the New York City banks, law firms, stock brokerages or hospitals consider shorts an acceptable part of a work uniform, and for reasons that vary from the need to preserve institutional decorum to hygiene imagine a hairy leg in an OR.

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Still, there was a time when politicians were seldom seen, even out of the office, without their decorous suit coats, and never in short pants Nixon famously wore shoes on the beach.

Fifteen years ago, when Hyman Gross, a real estate lawyer in Manhattan, proposed wearing shorts in summer, his boss responded that the firm was not a beach club. Last year, though, looking at office workers of both sexes disporting themselves seminaked on the streets of the city, Gross, who is in his ninth decade, concluded it was time for shorts. And so there he was, taking a break at Bryant Park, nattily attired in a black polo shirt from Target and a pair of sandy-colored camouflage shorts he bought in a shop in a subway arcade. He also wears his short pants to the ballet and the opera.

8220;The idea of being threatened by the objectified male body has gone, the process is complete,8221; explained Aaron Hicklin, the editor-in-chief of Out magazine. 8220;Men are the same as women now.8221;
-GUY TREBAY New York Times