Designer Shorts Go Long on Price Tag

Men’s shorts, once the outfit of choice for working outside or lounging around the house, are the new fancy dress pants—or so designers are trying to convince the world. And the new generation of shorts has the price tag to match, the New York Times reports, with high-end stores charging as much as $775 for drawstring shorts or $1,495 for a man-skort.

“All the work is the same as pants,” says one designer, but some customers are balking: “It’s like you are getting less fabric and less workmanship for more money,” counters one analyst. One pair of shorts, at $615, is more expensive than its $485 pants counterpart—but a Bergdorf Goodman rep can explain the apparent discrepancy: “The shorts have all the bells and whistles.” (More what recession? stories.)