Look at Rihanna, she’s so effortless in her leg-baring bottoms. Hot pants are huge this season. Rih loves them, LiLo loves them, we know Lady Gaga loves them. But while they’re turning up on celebs left and right, they’re also hitting stores in our level of the stratosphere, and it’s making me wonder: are hot pants a wearable garment for the everyday? Obviously not for work, but for say, shopping? Brunch with the ladies? Could you rock them? 




I’m trying to put my finger on why they feel sort of overtly scandalous to me. Okay, for starters, I’ve never had great legs. I could probably see wanting to show off the goods if I had them. Also, I think they are a great way to wear a short, loose-fitting skirt without giving away too much, but that begins to defeat the purpose of minimal clothing for hot weather (I live in Texas; last summer was over 100 degrees for over 80 days straight). Also, they aren’t a “new” style. Young women wore them in off and on from the ’50s to the ’70s, but somehow they don’t look as racy on them. I can’t put my finger on it exactly.


To me they look like bathing suit bottoms, and that’s cool, too. If you’re going to the beach, again, minimal clothing is totally understandable. The thing my little grandma senses — you know, the “you’re not going out dressed like that, young lady!” instincts — are flying off the charts about are the ensembles where they’re truly treated like shorts. As if shorts have ever looked like that. American Apparel has them marketed as “disco pants” which I think puts them in the correct context. There’s something about them that harkens back to hazy images of roller-discos and Boogie Nights. So regardless of their modesty factor, I can’t see myself wearing them just on the grounds of taste.

So, am I being a total prude and denying myself the possibility of being a lot more comfortable in the warm weather months by shunning hot pants? Or are they reserved for Hollywood socialites for whom pants are passé? Would you wear hot pants? And if so, under what circumstances?

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