Facts and acceptance

[California Dolphin]

Interestingly, when I was in the local supermarket last week, I noticed a couple of guys wearing what appear to be "cut offs" made from what were formerly long & baggy Nike shorts.

I've also noticed several other cases of guys wearing cut off jeans that were at least 1/2 way up from the knee and I've been wearing short cut offs for about 6 months now. However I don't get any looks or comments.

As I've said before, just wear what you like (speedos to the pool or short shorts for casual) and eventually diversity will take it's course and that will ultimately set the style.

CD

[bostonspdo]

We are in a chicken and egg situation where most people want to fit in so they buy long baggy shorts so that is all that stores sell. I think that I am seeing more guys in speedos on the beach and short shorts on the street in the past couple of years but it is still rare. I wear short shorts as much as possible, like now for instance, because the more the more they are seen the more acceptable they will become and maybe more available. What is really necessary is for some popular clothing brand to make a fashion statement about speedos and shorts. It can be expensive to do so if you misjudge the market though. This is not a commercial endorsement but one brand that I think is headed the right direction is American Apparel. I've bought their (slightly expensive) products but the important thing is that they appeal to younger, fashion conscious people and are promoting at least moderately more revealing clothing.

[Byron]

Yes, the fashion industry is notoriously fickle and the relationship with the customer is of one bunch of sheep leading another bunch of sheep.

The truth of a particular product situation is obscured because the retailer sheep are frightened of having a stockroom full of unsold merchandise "for which there is no demand". On the other hand the "demand" from the customer sheep only comes about because somebody or something has told them that they must buy xxx this year because to be seen wearing xxx from last year would be deeply unfashionable.
There is a phenomenon in food purchases which illustrates this rather well and results from the proliferation of cookery programs on tv in recent years.
"Celebrity chefs" now abound and the presentation of a recipe somewhat outside the norm will result in supermarkets immediately selling out of stocks of a particular fruit or vegetable on which previous sales have been minimal
(or some supermarkets not able to sell out because they had never stocked the product in the first place).

How many times have we been told by store clerks "We're sorry Sir but we don't stock those - there's just no demand for them any more" ?
It is right for CD to say that all customers should make their wishes known on the purchases they expect to make from the big retail chains but I am afraid it would need millions of Emails to bring about even a slight reassessment of policies in some buying departments.

[dorcas3]

I grew up in 501 cutoffs. I usually made them from old worn jeans that the knees had given out. After the cut they begin to frey and you would end up with 2 inches of fuzz. When you make the cut don't go too high our yu'll cut the bottom off the side pockets which Iiked to have. If you took sandpaper to the crotch and over the buttons you could really thin out the material to be more comfortable. If you went commando your dick and nuts were apt to hang out so I wore a swimmer jock. They became easily waterlogged so not good for swimming unless you were desperate to cool off which often happened. I don't see why some company does'nt make them up for a fashion statement-sew all kinds of designs on them and sell for 100.00.

[Torchwatch]

the Japanese do .........

[Byron]

Yes they do, but so tiny there would not be much opportunity to sew a design on them.
The guy on roller skates in Paris had probably cut a bit too high as suggested
(but his fashion statement no doubt)

http://shop.pacsun.com/home.jsp
Interesting to see here that men's shorts appear long but look at women's and you find the cut-offs (and there is the Roxy brand, which brings us full circle to the thread about bikini bottoms)

[California Dolphin]

Regarding Byron's post #13 on this topic, I seriously doubt that many people would actually take the intitiative to contact the management or the owners of any of the main stream clothing stores.

Also the people behind the counter are usually minimum wage employees who don't give a rat's behind about their job other than getting a weekly paycheck.

It's a lot like politics - People bitch and gripe about government, however very, very, very few ever take the intitiative to contact their representative. I know an office worker for the congressional rep for San Francisco area, and she says they only get a few emails a day -at the very most- from the public.

With that kind of apathy for something as serious as government, I don't believe anyone is going to take the intitiative to complain that their department store isn't selling speedos or short shorts.

CD

[Byron]

Quite agree CD - but aren't you contradicting your own post ? (message 6)

[California Dolphin]

Byron, what I meant was that IF people did complain, they would probably get some favorable results. It's a matter of taking the initiative.

By the way American Apparel might be a good place to start making suggestions. American's headquarters and manufacturing operations are located in Los Angeles (instead of China, Mexico, Thailand, etc.) and they also operate their own stores throughout California.

http://www.americanapparel.net/

CD

[Byron]

I didn't know they are so international -
they list stores in nineteen countries now.

(LOL - London has acquired a new area
called Carnaby ) (it's Soho).