Short Shorts On The Way Back!!!

[sebbie]

Conclusion: THe Over-the-knee trend in BB shorts didnt really get underway until about 2000. Shorts started lehgthening significantly about 1995

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Interesting research Sebbie. Shorts have clearly followed the way of social norms. Mens swimwear and casual shorts were also much shorter through the 80's. Anyone recall the OP shorts guys wore that had virtually no inseam? Most guys swimwear "back in the day" was the boxer and gym short styles that looked much like basketball shorts. Then along came board shorts....

What I did find intersting is the swim team archive from Bowdoin, which is on the mid-coast of Maine. The guys never did adopt jammers, at least not by the photos. Also, unlike many teams that ventured to more fully dressed team photos of late, Bowdoin's team photos stayed in swim attire.

[louis]

After seeing all those pics, I cant understand why basket ball shorts came to be so long.
Wasnt it a lot cooler while they were short, more comfortable, mor freedom of mouvement, and not to mention the athletic look, and the athletes body enhancing, riminds me of the short tennis shorts of the 60ts and on til the long ones came to trend , I remember how graceful the tennis players were in there different mouvements in white short shorts , same thing for basketball of course. hopefully shorts shorts will be back so athletes will be more sport like in appearance.

[Byron]

Yes, good old pics there to reflect the changing times - and those team photos looked far more impressive with the original long socks being worn.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me...nfpo1_1280.jpg

This has a relationship with mysterious number ten shorts (post#69)
These guys are wearing ES and they are all number twelve Barcelona
(and I think all with speedos under).
A style which is new to me - could they be beach volleyballers ?

Btw what are OP?

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

http://www.etsy.com/listing/11125200...ss-green-kelly

Popular in the US in the 70's and 80's

[solarguy]

Originally Posted by SwimTeamSpeedo

http://www.etsy.com/listing/11125200...ss-green-kelly

Popular in the US in the 70's and 80's

I had these shorts in ten different colors! Would love to have them now. I still get made fun of, for the pink pair I had!

[sebbie]

What I found interesting about the long College swim-team sequence is that the swimmers seemed to have no issues with being photographed as a team all clad in briefs up until about the year 2000. Then after that note that the men clad with sweatpants and maybe a zippered sweatshirt over were asked to step in front of the scantily clad swimmers which conveniently hides the torsos and legs of the guys wearing only briefs. After this there seems to be some dispute as to what appropriate swim-team team photo attire should be that doesn't get fully resolved in successive photos as the years pass.

Some guys in recent years seem comfortable being photographed only in their briefs, others perhaps less so. There is a bit of a homo-erotic component to all of this as in swim team guys being photographed only in briefs with a bunch of other guys..is this ok or not? It's part of bing part of the swimming team to get photographed in only your briefs sopmething every male swim team member needs to come to terms.

[Byron]

Swimmers maybe - but no issues with the water polo guys I would suggest
(in fact the less to wear the better)

[Torchwatch]

The drug gangs in the USA started to wear big baggy shorts in the 1990's, they were able to hide drugs and weapons in their shorts. The black and later white communities followed suit when they played street basket ball and followed the fashion of the tougher guys.
The "moral majority" jumped onto the bandwagon, they identified shorter shorts with the gay community, and so turned young people against, showing their legs.
Interesting to see how in the WW2 era photos the guys went topless, but covered the navel.
The pre WW2 swimmers covered their chests but exposed their legs, in heavy cotton it must have been hard to swim. No wonder so many schools enforced naked swimming.