What was he thinking of?!?

DH wears shorts all the time in Summer he has casual pairs and smart linen pairs and has even been know to wear them out for a meal in the evening.
Not when it's cold though !!
I've often wondered about the postmen, it makes sense for them now.

I feel the cold annodomini. I sometimes wonder if I should have been born in the med or some southern clime, rather than t'north west

Our postman Joe wears shorts all year round and says there is a bit of competition between postmen to see who gives in first and goes into long trousers so he never does!

Depends on your definition of 'cold' Iam.

It's sort of 'mad dogs and Englishmen' in reverse!!

The informality aspect is fine....it's how do they cope with virtually sub zero temps that intrigues me! They're off to NYC today for five days to celebrate dd's 40th and he's packed shorts!!!

I know bags, but it's so cold!

Maybe people who wear shorts to the cinema or the supermarket are just wearing what they find comfortable and don't give a damn what anyone else thinks of their sense of 'style'. Good for them, I say. Cinemas and supermarkets are hardly Formality Central.

My neighbour wears shorts from March to October incl. even if it's snowing, apart from when he is in very fetching Lycra on his racing bike or in leathers on his Harley Davison - he is 76

Yes to the sporty aspect. We have a PE/rugby teacher living across the road and he often makes me shiver just to see him. He seems to live in shorts and a tshirt under a padded gilet.

Yes, I can see the postman or cyclist finding shorts an easier option, but at the supermarket, the cinema WHY

GA you are most probably right as DS1 rides his bike to work every day in shorts,even in wet weather he says he has to dry off when he gets in so why make for more work by having to dry trousers or jeans he has worn on his bike on the way in, so I suppose it makes sense to him anyway.

Think it's about being younger....or ' No sense, no feeling'!

Is it do with being sporty perhaps? My eldest son stays in his shorts as long as he can, but as he's a rower/cyclist he's actually used to being out in light clothing in cold, wet weather.

Men in shorts should not be allowed off the beach.

At my school boys had to wear shorts until they were five feet tall.

Oh well, here in Australia shorts are normal all year - my husband favours rugby shorts - thick interlock and medium length, teamed with a polo shirt. Not that he is interested in either sport - only cycling (and that is in the past).

I used to cycle in shorts, and so did he, in the Yorkshire winter sometimes. It is easier to ride in shorts.

The worst fashion, and DH loved it, was tailored shorts with long socks and a short-sleeved business shirt. Some Aussie males still dress like that.

I do remember wearing mini skirts and coats all thru winter and not feeling cold. Mind you, when I spent 18 months in Vienna as a young 'un, where the winter wind blows direct from Siberia, I wore thick maxi-coats and fur lined boots.

Don't grown men in long shorts and hoodies remind you of toddlers?

Ah the dreaded clown trousers... funny on Eric Morecambe, plain bloody daft on most ordinary chaps.

Our postman explained that he wears them 'because when it rains (as it so often does) they don't get as wet as proper trousers (?) and they dry quicker'.

In my RAF days, in the middle East we had our KD shorts tailored to just short of indecent exposure...

Both DSs wear those calf-length 'shorts' in summer and I fervently hope that when I see them next week they'll both be sensibly dressed. I detest those mid-length 'shorts' but keep my lip firmly buttoned and hope that they outgrow their mid-life crises soon.

When I collected GDs from school yesterday I noticed two Dads chatting in the playground, one in a puffa jacket, beanie hat and scarf.....the other, shorts and polo shirt! Why?

So many men wear shorts or those pirate type mid calf length trousers WHY? it's not an attractive look in the summer and it looks worse in the cold and wet imo.
I wonder if its a desire to go back to childhood, when no doubt most of them couldn't wait to get out of short trousers and into long ones

Glammanana.....that's pretty much what SIL was wearing apart from the trapper hat. We're in the NE of Scotland and the wind comes straight in off the North Sea direct from Norway! What few trees we have grow at a jaunty 45 degree angle - talk about blasted heath! And in the middle of it ... a bare legged SIL!!

My brothers had to wear the shorts all year round as well, and as I recall they were made of same material as their blazers. My youngest brother still has an aversion to 'jaggy trousers' and lives in his Rohans!

And the shorts were short! I loved little boys in short shorts.

Yes, and we had chapped legs as a result

Boys used to wear short trousers all the time.