“Things where my friend looks good,” reads the screen of a TikTok video from user @GabrielleKraus. As a spectator, I expected the usual crisp clothes: a tuxedo, perhaps, like a muscle tank.
No. The video was about shorts. Really short shorts. Specifically those with a 5.5-inch seam.
This summer, the video-sharing app is flooded with young millennials and Gen-Z women and men alike about boys in teenage bottoms. Videos compiling the hashtag # 5inchseam have more than 23.1 million views on TikTok. Google is looking for the trend length that skyrocketed in July.
From the early aughts until mid-2010, men’s shorts appeared longer, sporting both 7-inch and 9-inch seams. But in recent years, shorter styles are more in vogue. Guilty of the careless hamstring grazers of Armie Hammer in 2017’s “Call Me By Your Name.”
It has become an irresistible look – especially for women like Tyler Alexander, a 20-year-old TikTokker who lives in Calabasas, California. She went so far as to wear her friend Ryan’s shorts without him knowing – to achieve the desired inseam and spice up his appearance. The video of her secret scheme has more than 875,000 views.
@tyler_maddiso YHe does not even know he has the 5.5 inch inseam now #inseam #sewingtutorial # 5inch # 5inchseam # 7inchstraights #hem #sewingdiy #TokyoOlympics
The original search – mr.temik
Like I also heard about the trend of videos on the app. ‘He’s taller, and he has nice legs, [so] it would be nice if he showed his legs a little more, ”Alexander told The Post. Luckily, Ryan, 19, had left a pair of rubber-ducky patterned swimming trunks at her home, so she broke out her sewing machine.
When Alexander later revealed the change, Ryan appreciated the new, smoother look. “He’s probably going to have me a few more pairs for him.”
Bushwick-based fashion photographer Gabriel Perez Silva is surprised that the trend has gone mainstream: He’s been wearing shorter shorts for about eight years now – and is therefore roasted by his friends: ” Why are your shorts so short? Are you wearing your girlfriend’s pants? ” The 23-year-old turned his poles back and said.
@_youngshot # 5inchseam #mensfashion #nyc #shortshorts #tattoo #miamibeach
♬ Ben10 Trap Intro – sheriff_alex
Perez Silva, who is from Florida, started wearing them because of the hot temps heading south. He thinks thinner bottoms are now preferred thanks to sensations on social media, shubbies, a frat-boy brand that launched in 2011 and the phrase “Sky’s out, thighs out.” Popularized.
Well, “with TikTok, girls [are] and express that they look better on boys, ‘he said. “And boys push each other to feel more comfortable wearing what they want and not being self-conscious about it.”
Although most pairs of Perez Silva are vintage, if you are looking for short shorts, he says that styles made for the martial arts Muay Thai are “the best.”
Desmond Brooks, co-owner of Tribeca-based bespoke studio ShopBoy, agrees that martial arts has had an enormous effect on the trend.
“You see Conor McGregor, who is considered a male man, who wore short Versace shorts,” the 35-year-old told The Post. He credits the NBA and pro football, rock stars like Harry Styles and fashion houses like Gucci for jumpstarting the look.
There’s a reason why these shorts can be so transformative for men: “Especially for a shorter person, it lengthens your body. It does a good job of framing someone,” Brooks said.
He had a lot of requests to wear shorts – even swishy athletic styles. Gym rats specifically “want shorts that stretch right above the quad muscles so they can see the results of them working,” he said.
But Brooks warns that not all 5.5-inch seams are created equal. “The seam depends on where the turnout is, it really differs per garment,” he said. Rather look for the “safe place”: “3 or 4 inches above the actual knee joint.”
I took Brooks’ advice to task. My friend, Nick Valeri, is a little on the shorter side – 5-foot, 6-inch long (we stand a short king!). I’ve been trying for a while now to get him in a pair of smaller pants.
I broke out a tape measure and safety pins and came to work on his favorite pair of shorts, a 7-inch inseam pair from J.Crew.
He slipped on his new 5.5-inch shorts and boom! Like the Grinch at Christmas, he grew a few inches right before my eyes. Instead of swallowing his clothes, he looked fit and put them together. Who was this new man?
“Larry Bird used to wear short shorts, and he was a champion, so I feel like a champion,” he told me, adding that he felt much cooler. “It helps with the humidity,” he said, flexing his gams.
Looks like we’ll be going to the mall this week.
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