Image credit: courtesy of Ksenia Schnaider
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Spring is making her presence known. Overcoats, scarves and leather bombers have enjoyed their time in the spotlight, but as the sun comes out of hiding, they’ll have to share the attention with more timely pieces—the flouncier, shorter-hemmed, sheerer items that beckon the dog days, not the wintry ones. And though there have been several trends that have taken our fancy this season (the sweetly sensible Mary Jane and lacy skirt amongst them), one in particular has asserted itself as a linchpin of contemporary casual: the jean short, beloved of vacationing dads and votaries of Bella Hadid.
It’s interesting to compare the jort’s popularity with, say, the mid-2000s’ love of Daisy Dukes, because it reflects a broader shift in the way we’re thinking about womenswear. Where Daisy Dukes are hyper-feminine by name and cut—they’re little more than denim briefs, which is the whole point—jorts have a far more masculine bent. They’re big. They’re baggy. For years, they were maligned as unflattering. Say “jort” and conjure visions of Adam Sandler and Andre Agassi. It’s only recently that every model you’ve ever known has pledged their allegiance to the low-slung, knee-long shape, curating their best joutfits (is that an illegal portmanteau?) from Copenhagen to New York.
But it’s that fluidity that gives the jort its appeal. Styled well, it can function as the centrepiece of a look. It has the versatility of a jean, but also a certain unexpectedness; substitute a skirt for jorts and suddenly, your ensemble feels inspired. A jort is casual and tough and easy all at once. As Liana Satenstein writes, “Once you’ve seen a jort, you can’t forget it. It burrows into your brain and most likely your closet.”
Below, we show you our five favourite ways to style jorts this season.
