Looking for Classic Nylon Dolfin Shorts

[Torchwatch]

Fashion is controlled by avant guards and the mob. The mob just oozes about like an amoeba not particularly going anywhere. The amoeba sends out pseudo-pods in all directions searching for new resources in the way the avant guard searches for new materials and ideas. When a pseudopod discovers a new resource the amoeba will ooze along mindlessly in that direction. Similarly when the avant guard establishes a new fashion the mob will follow that trend.
In the late 1980s shorts a couple of inches longer than average were always available, but only pensioners were buying them. A few people, possibly on holiday bought the longer, shorts possibly as a joke. Sensing a change in demand the manufacturers and shops replaced the longer shorts, stocked a few pairs even longer and dropped the shortest ranges. At first men's bikinis were dropped followed by anything but black Speedos in the High Street stores, while shorts got longer.
Of course once short shorts and speedos became a minority interest prudes came out of the woodwork and damned them on grounds of decency and religious principles.