Short pants considered fad

Sixty-five years ago this week, a new fashion trend for men was being debated locally.

Should men wear short trousers that came up 4 inches above their shoes?

That was the question asked of three local clothiers, whose responses were published Dec. 23, 1953.

The pants in question were advocated by the Fashion Foundation for a practical reason, according to the article: shorter pants wouldn’t get dirty as quickly in rainy weather, leading to less expensive cleaning bills.

Max Wolford, a salesperson at Model Clothing House in Portland, was not in favor of the pants because of the “naked ankles” they’d show off.

“They’ll have to work up some fancy socks,” he said.

At Weiler’s, C.O. Brown considered the pants as a passing fashion fad. He had been a salesperson for more than 30 years.

Brown told The CR that in the 1890s, tight pants were all the rage, while the 1920s were another thing entirely: men wore box coats with straight-legged pants, accessorizing with “lemon-yellow shoes with pointed toes.”

Jim Ramsey, owner of Ramsey’s Men Shop, predicted the short pants trend would die off quickly, which was one of the perils of owning a clothing store.

In the months it took shops to receive orders for popular clothes, the fad may already be over.

The CR concluded that only time will tell if the shortened trousers would live on, ending its analysis with the phrase, “It’s true, MAN makes the clothes.”