September 20, 2011

The return of hot pants.

I remember the first time this happened. The people who succumbed to the trend were very embarrassed later, to the point that they couldn't even understand how they could have made such an egregious fashion blunder. But I'm old, and these kids today don't remember. They will have to go through their own cycle of enthusiasm and shame. Have fun!

82 comments:

author, etc. said...

Hmm,

not seeing this as so bad.

MadisonMan said...

I like her watch.

madAsHell said...

I'm not seeing a problem here.

Chip S. said...

smokin'

traditionalguy said...

Hmmm. The whole place will soon be filled with Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.

How can we band of brothers possibly endure that?

It's like winning the lottery. We never really expected to win it a second time.

Lyle said...

She's just a young woman looking to get laid. She's probably winning.

MisterBuddwing said...

::shrug:: I was under the impression that "hot pants" never really went away, only the term, that there have always been women who would wear what are now called "short shorts."

WV: teaga

pm317 said...

'hot pants'? I don't see any pants!

{her thighs look old for her age}

G Joubert said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
traditionalguy said...

To even think that women were not designed by a loving God suddenly seems so impossible.

This may be a Creationist's plot.

FloridaSteve said...

Well in her case, if you've got it flaunt it. If you don't...

John said...

To all of you who view this as a good thing, remember...

Guys can wear hot pants, too.

Word verification: eraceist
I don't even know where to begin on that one...

Jeff with one 'f' said...

This is an outrage against feminine decorum and public decency!

I must investigate further.

FloridaSteve said...

Ann I think you should have a POLL here! All in fave and all opposed or something like that.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I'm not seeing a problem here.

You aren't seeing normal women in those yet. Looks cool on a tall thin modelesque type of person.

Just wait until you see a 5'2 150 pound woman with cottage cheese thighs and a muffin top wearing hot pants.

THEN you will see the problem.

LOL. I remember hot pants too.

Toshstu said...

On Obama's watch.

Finally something worked out for the guy

G Joubert said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ddh said...

She looks like a street walker late for a business meeting.

Toshstu said...

"Just wait until you see a 5'2 150 pound woman with cottage cheese thighs and a muffin top wearing hot pants."

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

Smilin' Jack said...

...such an egregious fashion blunder.

Works for me. Some things are more important than fashion.

Paul said...

Whether it's a blunder or not is purely a function of the girl's shape, no?

The girls lined up around the block to enter the popular dance clubs in SF on weekend nights are just about all wearing skirts that barely pass the point of bifurcation. Basically it's hooker wear. If hot pants offend your old fashioned hard bitten feminist sensibilities you would probably faint at the sight of so much exsposed nubile female flesh.

Anonymous said...

Lose the cigarrette. It's making you look trashy (er).

jamboree said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Triangle Man said...

The regret of embarrassment from hot pants may be nothing compared to the orthopedic regrets she will have from wearing stillettos.

Ann Althouse said...

"::shrug:: I was under the impression that "hot pants" never really went away, only the term, that there have always been women who would wear what are now called "short shorts.""

Short shorts was the term used in the 1950s. There was a hit song "Who Wears Short Shorts?" Bob Gaudio wrote it when he was 15.

The term "hot pants" was used for the upgrading of shorts into outfits that were supposed to be worn to work and out at night. I remember selling them when I worked a summer job in 1971 (I think) at a department store called Litz (or Lit's or Lits... I forget!). They were everywhere, and then gone.

What this model is wearing deserves to be called "hot pants" because of the dressed-up styling with a jacket and fussy high heels. That's the regression to the old trend that needs to be seen.

Sorin said...

Yes, bring back “the Daisy Dukes”!

Ann Althouse said...

"Whether it's a blunder or not is purely a function of the girl's shape, no? The girls lined up around the block to enter the popular dance clubs in SF on weekend nights are just about all wearing skirts that barely pass the point of bifurcation. Basically it's hooker wear. If hot pants offend your old fashioned hard bitten feminist sensibilities you would probably faint at the sight of so much exsposed nubile female flesh."

Ironically, I didn't say a word about feminism. You're the one that's got it on the brain.

You see this much flesh all the time at the beach or pool. The question is, would you enjoy it if women walked down the street in their bathing suits.

There's a woman I've seen around Madison who walks around in a bikini. It's very strange. You think, that's practically like walking down the street naked... but then: Everyone reveals this much at the beach. Why does it feel so different?

It's very funny.

viator said...

Hot pants by Mary Quant, London, 1971

Mary Quant

G Joubert said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chip S. said...

The nice linguistic feature of the term "hot pants" is that it describes both cause and effect with economy and precision.

Salamandyr said...

Actually, the new thing about these shorts isn't the bottoms, it's the top.

Women have been wearing really short shorts for several years now, but like most clothing, they've been low waisted.

These shorts are high waisted, that's new (or at least, a return to the old).

viator said...

Royal Teens - Short Shorts

YouTube

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The term "hot pants" was used for the upgrading of shorts into outfits that were supposed to be worn to work and out at night.

I wore them in the early 70's for a brief moment in time.

Lived in SF and worked in the financial district. The set, as I remember, was hotpants, a blouse and a longer swingy duster type of coat and high heeled boots.

Oh yeah....stylin'

And as Althouse says, that style didn't last for very long.

Bob_R said...

So the fashion blunder is wearing FMN pants when you are not in a FMN situation. I guess FMN shoes have become OK in some workplaces because shoes are at least a bit more subtle. But once you wear hot pants to the office a tube top with the word "Tasty" in glitter can't be far behind.

cubanbob said...

DBQ when you're hot you're hot and when you're not you're not. Its a chance for young men to enjoy the view and old farts to ogle and reminisce.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

And while we are talking about regrettable fashion trends.

You guys made some pretty big fashion mistakes too.

Remember this look!! Check out the 3rd photo

Like I said: the 70's are coming back economically. Please God, don't bring back the styles or polyester.

vw: imiss no I don't

Fred4Pres said...

Shorts. It is a dark fashion period for Althouse.

Personally, I like the mini skirt better (on attractive women). But that is me.

Aurelian said...

Sorin:

In the ghetto they never left.

edutcher said...

All this means is that the Aughties are ending like the Seventies.

Barack.

G Joubert said...

I remember it the first time too, circa 1972, IIRC. Me, I never thought of it as a blunder at all, worn on the right woman.

Yo.

PS Damn, DBQ, you sure know how to kill a mood.

PPS From her words, dare we hope there's a snap of Mrs Meade in hot pants from her wild and misspent youth?

PPPS She also stole my line about short shorts.

traditionalguy said...

There is a time and a place for everything.

Women wearing of hot pants outfits in offices and other public places in the late 1960s was a feminists assertion that females could display their bodies un-restrained by social mores created by men to restrain them.

It resulted in some of the best art work ever put on display.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

They will have to go through their own cycle of enthusiasm and shame.

The difference being that this time their shame will live on forever on the internet.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

John said...

To all of you who view this as a good thing, remember...

Guys can wear hot pants, too.


They can even wear them in the military now.

Ann Althouse said...

"Personally, I like the mini skirt better (on attractive women). But that is me."

A miniskirt is more flattering because of the way it draws attention to the legs... without all the bunchy crotch business. But with a skirt, there's always the problem of your underpants (or whatever) showing. At a certain point in the hem-elevation, you've got to stop or switch to shorts (or never bend over or sit down).

I know what I'm talking about. I was the first girl in my junior high school class to wear miniskirts. I was sent to the vice principal's office many times for wearing short skirts (and I defended myself and kept doing it). And I rehemmed skirts over and over many times throughout the 1960s.

cubanbob said...

Dust Bunny Queen said...
And while we are talking about regrettable fashion trends.

You guys made some pretty big fashion mistakes too.

Remember this look!! Check out the 3rd photo

Like I said: the 70's are coming back economically. Please God, don't bring back the styles or polyester.

vw: imiss no I don't

9/20/11 10:43 AM

Since its turning out to be a reply of the 70's why not go for broke? Platform shoes, satin pants with glitter belts , Nik Nik shirts and Elton John glasses for the disco hound. You know you just love the night life.

I wonder how a reboot of Saturday Night Fever would be done today.

Ann Althouse said...

I was a miniskirt rebel back when it took nerve and you had to fight the authorities.

I almost got barred from the Honor Society, despite my straight As, on *moral* grounds, after my Chemistry teacher informed them of my miniskirted badness.

I had to do an interview to prove I wasn't a slut.

Pastafarian said...

Althouse: "The question is, would you enjoy it if women walked down the street in their bathing suits."

Ewww. That would be...gross...

I'll be in my bunk.

Pastafarian said...

I figured women would prefer to wear short shorts rather than short skirts, because of the Lindsay Lohan panty-flash dilemma when getting in and out of vehicles.

I think the shorts are usually a nicer look than the skirt -- it looks more athletic, and they can be shorter than the skirt.

This is a look I've hoped would come back. This, and really tight jeans on women. And those spandex camel-toe getups they had in the 90s, those were cool too.

Known Unknown said...

I won't be convinced until I see a world draped in velour.

pm317 said...

@Althouse There's a woman I've seen around Madison who walks around in a bikini. It's very strange.
---------
Once when we were visiting Santa Barbara, and by the boardwalk, a woman in a bikini and two flowers stuck on her nipples whizzed past us on roller blades. I call that gutsy.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

At a certain point in the hem-elevation, you've got to stop or switch to shorts (or never bend over or sit down).

Oh yeah.

I remember learning how to pick items up from the ground by gracefully (I hope it was graceful)going into a slight crouch by twisting the upper torso and bending the knees. Actually a pretty good exercise for the thighs and glutes :-)

Just bending over was to expose your entire behind to the whole world. You'd better be wearing pretty underpants in those days.

kjbe said...

I had to do an interview to prove I wasn't a slut.

Kind of the same, here. 5th grade version, about 1969 - wanted to wear pants under a dress. Got sent to the principle's office to 'splain myself and got the policy changed.

art.the.nerd said...

Sorry, Ann, you're just wrong on this one. A pretty girl with terrific legs wearing hot pants / short shorts is a thing of beauty.

There's a Hebrew prayer: "Blessed be the Lord our God who makes wonders." It's normally said for rainbows and similar objects of natural beauty. IMHO it applies to this fine-looking woman as well.

Remember: God made Man first. Then He said to Himself, "I can do better", and created Woman.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I had to do an interview to prove I wasn't a slut.

How exactly does one prove that in an interview? Do you have to make it through the entire interview without once sleeping with the interviewer?

ndspinelli said...

Needs more booty.

ndspinelli said...

The nuns would have gotten your mind right, professor. They would have the girls drop to their knees. If the skirt[uniform of course] didn't hit the floor, you "hit the road Jac[queline]"

Curious George said...

Remember ladies, like Spandex, wearing hot pants is a privilege, not a right.

Martha said...

I wore hot pants in the '70's and I am proud of it!

Everyone wore hot pants. In the 60's we wore shrot short skirts.

oh to be young again.

traditionalguy said...

The thoughts of a young La Althouse wearing a miniskirt is bringing back to mind the Ann Margaret dance scenes in Viva Las Vegas. They are burned into my memory.

MadisonMan said...

I had to do an interview to prove I wasn't a slut.

What did you wear to the interview?

jamboree said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Beldar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Beldar said...

What is a "fashion blunder"? That seems to presuppose some true, abiding fashion.

What's constant is the attractiveness of human legs — especially young, athletic legs. What varies is the notion of how much of them should be displayed, when, and with what clothing.

Surely when this young woman is forty years older, she'll think her legs look great in this photo, regardless of her views about whether the short-shorts were (or are) "fashionable."

Anonymous said...

Toshtu-

OMG!

JackOfClubs said...

I will forgive the '70s for hot pants. For bell bottoms? Never!

Stephen A. Meigs said...

So that's what hot pants are--they are shorts rather than pants. I have no problem with girls trying to remind people that pointy hindquarters are a mildly effective defense against sodomy; if she didn't smoke, the fashion would look fine. The key is for a girl to show off her curve without looking as though she is trying to make her rear end seem sexual. The rest of the outfit is okay, but looking more closely, I dislike in the watch the contrast between the yellow and the red tint that exists in the face of the watch. I sort of agree about the bunchy crotch business about short shorts, though. I don't know what accounts for that, sometimes there is no such thing; they've got to fit right, I guess.

Short skirts are fine too: there's a kind of gracefulness to them. The flowing quality of them makes the wearer seem easy going and, I don't know, more in harmony with the ground they're walking on. Bell bottoms tried to emulate that in pants, I suppose, but the effect is quite artificial in my opinion. I remember in the mid-70s how kids where I lived ostracized those who wore bell-bottoms and "high waters". Looking back, I agree with the assessment about bell-bottoms. But I can see pretty clearly why wearing pants that showed some sock was ostracized. Such pants in growing kids suggested hand-me-downs, an atrocious snooty reason to dislike something. Pants that come up a little on the calf look much better (especially on girls) and are much more practical than pants that scrape the floor. Of course, by the mid-70s everyone thought ridiculously slutty the "peanut pants" of a few year earlier which girls were supposed to wear low on the hips; rightly, no girl wanted to look like the girls who wore those a few years earlier--after all, girls sometimes have to sit down. The other things I remember about fashion in the mid-70s was that it if one didn't wear sneakers with sporty stripes one was accused of wearing "fishheads", which I was told were a kind of boxy stripeless tennis shoe. I like plain-looking comfortable canvas athletic shoes, and I remember fondly my blue tennis shoes with the big rubber bumper in front, so I don't respect that fashion trend of the era. That somehow explains why (when wearing shorts) one couldn't wear socks unless they had athletic stripes on them. And then a couple years later I remember people telling me how ridiculous I was because the fashion had turned to plain white socks. Then a few years after that it turned out my socks were too long. And around 1977 or so my sisters sensed the trend, and, thankfully, made me know no young male could wear any sort of pants except Levis. In particular, don't get caught dead wearing Toughskins! Which trend I suppose in a way was sort of snooty, but it is actually kind of okay with me, since it saved me the bother of having to worry about what to buy.

Clyde said...

"Jumping catfish!
"I can't believe my eyes!
"There goes Grandma
"She found a pair her size..."

"Hot Pants" - Salvage (1971)

Steve Koch said...

The girl in the hot pants looks great and it is way less risque than a really short skirt.

Paul said...

"Ironically, I didn't say a word about feminism. You're the one that's got it on the brain."

Ah your feminist views have been consistently expressed. I just find it amusing that with all the Marxist-Feminist effort expended to try and reform human nature that I see more hordes of young women than ever dressing like hookers, chasing what could only be described by feminists as misogynistic "bad boys".

Martha said...

I was forbidden to enter St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City in the summer of 1977 because my skirt was deemed too short.

I walked around the corner and pulled out the hem.
And no I was not then or ever a slut.

Freeman Hunt said...

I went out to buy maternity shorts the other day. The store offered one length, this length.

Yes, maternity hot pants. I assume these are marketed as gifts to be purchased by the enemies of pregnant women.

Ipso Fatso said...

I can't believe none of you White Devil, O-Fay, Honky MotherFu@@ers haven't linked to this yet:
Hot Pants!!!.

ndspinelli said...

Freeman Hunt, Good luck..eat green vegetables if you want a boy[Italian superstition]. Maybe I'm being presumptuous and you could have just been putting away some serious carbs. We love you no matter how you tip the scales, or the Buick!

AllenS said...

I'm all for attractive girls/women wearing as little clothing as possible.

Let it all hang out.

themightypuck said...

I just shot my wad.

Carol_Herman said...

Neat Chanel Jacket. NEVER went out of style!

Meanwhile, I called these "short, shorts." Wasn't great if you fell down. Since who likes scraping their knees?

Those shoes? In them you fall down. If not on the street, than when you step "down" into the gutter. And, your heel grabs.

LOVE THE CHANEL JACKET, THOUGH! (And, thanks to Jackie Kennedy, you didn't have to wear that silly little pill box hat in the back of your head.)

Have you noitced, too, that nurses no longer wear their white caps? (There was a time you'd know the nursing school a woman graduated from, by the shape of her white hat!)

Carol_Herman said...

The other thing with short, shorts? Your thighs got pasted to the car seats!

And, long ago there were no thongs. And, the short, shorts were hip huggers.

Unknown said...

So now young women, who have magnificent legs and look nothing at all like children in shorts - can't wear them either?

Pffffft!!

PS: Shame is an imposition from without. Those girls have nothing now or later to be embarrassed of.

Fred4Pres said...

I know what I'm talking about. I was the first girl in my junior high school class to wear miniskirts.

I salute your sense of fashion! You should try a mini next summer. For Meade.

Ann Althouse said...

" You should try a mini next summer. For Meade."

I hate to tell you but I wear miniskirts all the time.

FleetUSA said...

I've see 15 y/o girls wearing them at the school bus stop!

Jay Oestreich said...

I prefer women with long skirts, leaves more to the imagination.

Nate Whilk said...

John said, Word verification: eraceist
I don't even know where to begin on that one...


Mad TV presents a teen group opposing racism: the Eracists http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9--vbJq_Ho

Not to be confused with www.eracismfoundation.org or similar groups.