Are you trouser-trapped?

A rallying cry to the men of Paris

In case you didn’t know, we’re having a heatwave in Paris. It’s hottt. I don’t think I need to paint you a picture here…

But I have a question for the men of Paris: How can you possibly wear trousers at a time like this?

Perhaps I’ve always avoided offices with draconian dresscodes. Perhaps I run too hot in general. Perhaps I’m overly liberated.

But I just simply cannot imagine waking up on day 4 of a heatwave and voluntarily putting on trousers. Jeans, even!

I understand if you have a professional job. Maybe you’re a doctor. Or a street cleaner. Or a lawyer with client meetings. But if you’re spending the entire day behind a desk in an office, as most of us are, most days, trousers are just not necessary.

Neither are formal shirts really, but maybe we’ll come back to that.

The rigid imposition of trousers seems to stem from a few different places.

But I think what a lot of the anti-shorts rhetoric comes down to is that shorts are somehow an affront to masculinity. There’s somehow an idea that men should just carry on BEING MEN, regardless of what happens, never altering who they are or how they present themselves to the world, lest someone label them less than 100% heterosexual. I feel that men might worry that shorts infantilise them, giving them flashbacks of childhood school uniforms. I think there’s often a feeling that hairy men’s legs should be kept hidden away as they’re not aesthetically pleasing.

None of these things are true.

An Esquire article the other day highlighted this. An unnamed city bloke was quoted as saying “”I think the comments we’d get would just be unbearable. Some sectors might allow it, but private investment is a definite no-no.” This man’s fear of judgement from his peers is stopping him from dressing comfortably. A fear of doing something differently. Of not being a sheep.

Same goes for British stylist Peter Bevan, quoted in the same article saying that he’s worn shorts to the office “but I spent most of the time wondering if anyone was offended by my bare legs.”

It’s 2026 guys, wake up. No-one cares. We’re living in a world of climate change. It’s time we adapted.

If your workplace is still so prehistoric in their thinking that men shouldn’t wear trousers, it’s time to act. Shorts are a human right. They’re also an equality issue – if women can wear skirts to the office, men should be allowed to wear shorts. Surely!

(Of course, I’m really half-joking here. The patriarchal society in which we live means that women are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to men in so many ways. Anyway.)

I have one last thing to add. A clarion call for shorts for all: Men of Paris; unite! You have nothing to lose but your chinos!

HMU if you get that ref. Anyways, some other good stuff this week:

- My AC unit. Thankyou to Seb a few years ago who drunkenly decided to invest €300.

- Primavera planning with Kat

- Finishing the bathroom repaint, even in sweltering heat. It looks so good!

- Finding the perfect pair of seersucker shorts in Officine Générale

- Orangina. Of course.