Relief all round as Bad Bunny brings back regular length shorts
Does Puerto Rican star’s debut collection for Zara spell the end of short shorts?
Men can breathe a huge sigh of relief this week, thanks to Bad Bunny, whose debut collection for fast fashion company Zara includes a pair of shockingly normal mid-thigh shorts.
While for the last few years, short-shorts have threatened to make every day a leg day, the sight of the Puerto Rican star wearing shorts that come comfortably to within a few inches of the knee will signal a welcome shift for many.
Bad Bunny, or Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is not alone in his relatively modest hemline choice. As Hikmat Mohammed, beauty editor at Vogue Business, points out: “All the tennis players have been wearing longer shorts recently.” Grigor Dimitrov suffered a shock loss at Roland Garros this week wearing shorts a similar length to Ocasio’s.
“I don’t really think anybody should be wearing long shorts,” says Mohammed. “However there does seem to be a natural move for men.” He thinks it has to do with “relaxation, feeling maybe more comfortable in your body; it’s more slouchy.”
A possible push factor emerged last week in the shape of Andy Burnham’s tiny running shorts, barely long enough to cover his tensor fasciae latae. While opinion was divided, and Burnham isn’t known for style that you would necessarily want to distance yourself from, it’s not out of the question that it could have a similar effect to Rishi Sunak’s Adidas Sambas, which many hailed as the final nail in the coffin for the popular trainer.
Longer shorts may also have something to do with the economy. While rarely applied to menswear, according to the hemline index, seams trend upwards during prosperous times.
The trend for short shorts arguably began to gather steam in 2020, when Paul Mescal was photographed wearing quasi hotpants, a hemline preference that apparently dates back to his days playing Gaelic football. During a Saturday Night Live monologue, Mescal once joked: “A lot of people ask if we wear kilts. No, that’s the Scottish. Traditionally, the Irish wear short-shorts.”
What has been the tyranny of tiny shorts to some men has given licence to others. In 2021, US actor and star of This Is Us Milo Ventimiglia went for not much more than a 1in seam. In 2025, actor Alexander Skarsgård appeared on British breakfast TV in a pair of short-shorts, telling host Ranvir Singh: “I wanted to be sexy today.” Even M&S launched a selection of thigh-skimmers last year; 3in seams had made their way into the mainstream.
But regardless of Bad Bunny wears, there will always be some who champion a tiny short. In a recent campaign for Peloton, Hudson Williams, the star of what this newspaper has called a “horny gay ice hockey drama”, wears a cropped pair for strength training. Harry Styles, a short-shorts stalwart, appeared in tiny track-shorts in his latest video, which opens with a lingering shot of his legs.
But for Mohammed, in 2026, “if you’re doing short-shorts, that can feel quite performative.”
For anyone who hasn’t been following the shorts trends like the FTSE 100, the shorts you have been wearing all along are fine.