It’s starting to warm up in New York, which begs the question: What exactly are the summer shorts of the season? One of the best parts about attending fashion shows for a job is the steady exposure to newness, which makes you assess what you think you know about your personal style at any given moment. I’ve just come back from seeing the resort 2025 shows at Australian Fashion Week in Sydney, and when it comes to summer shorts, well, they’ve given me much to think about.
It was the second day of shows, and while waiting for Beare Park—a contemporary brand with a very ’90s-minimalism vibe—to start, I looked around and realized an inordinate amount of women were wearing Bermuda shorts. I saw Bermuda shorts worn with matching jackets, Bermuda shorts worn with cowboy boots, Bermuda shorts with teeny tops, and Bermuda shorts with oversized shirts. They were everywhere. “The Aussie girls really love a Bermuda short,” I texted at least three of my chats. Then the show began and out came a model in natural-wash blue denim Bermuda shorts paired with a button-down underneath a sweater layered beneath a cardigan, all three of which were tucked into the shorts waistband. The look was a little too styled, I thought, and yet I couldn’t stop thinking about those shorts.
Then I remembered the lapis acid-wash version that walked the day before at Albus Lumen, where designer Marina Afonina had completely rejected her sleek zen aesthetic for something more akin to a beachy boho vibe. But it wasn’t until I was at the Verner show a few days later, where designer Ingrid Verner decided to play with the surfer stereotypes that Australia is known for, that it really hit me: Wait, are baggy Bermudas my official summer shorts?
I have flirted with this look before. There was a pair of embroidered Bode shorts I bought a couple of years ago and wore with a vintage long-sleeve Santana shirt that one of my best friends got me for my birthday. And last year I simply had to have an insane pair of oversized bloomer shorts with a lace trim from designer Hed Mayner. But now I feel like I’m ready to fully commit to the trend. Maybe with the board shorts Miuccia Prada recently did at Miu Miu or the versions from Dries Van Noten that mixed prep-school and beach-bum vibes. I think the secret is to wear them a little big so that they more closely resemble nu-metal pants. You remember them: extra baggy and reaching past angsty young men’s knees. This way the silhouette is more akin to a proper skirt, which makes them even more subversive with a little heel or an extra-femme-y flat.
Memorial Day kicks off the summer proper, so it’s certainly a good time to set intentions for the season. I will read more books, I will listen to only pop girlies (thank you Billie, St. Vincent, and Dua for your contributions to the season), and, above all, I will be wearing very baggy cutoffs like I am going to follow the Family Values Tour across this great nation. As Jonathan Davis would put it: All Day I Dream About Shorts (that are baggy). Let’s go!
