A young woman arrives at a party. She is thoroughly swaddled in a full-length coat, high boots, fur hat and long gloves. Still, she is shivering. She stomps her feet to shake off the snow and removes her coat. Now the other guests begin to shiver. No wonder: on this bitter midwinter night, the woman is wearing shorts.
Shorts? Absolutely. And not just the ordinary old ho-hum sportswear type, but a brand-new outrageous variety, cut higher, tighter and altogether skimpier than anything Ruby Keeler ever kicked in (see THE THEATER). No longer fashioned of sturdy standards like denim and broadcloth, the current crop is made of flashier stuff—mink and monkey fur, silk and satin, calfskin, chiffon and cut velvet. The accepted generic term, hot pants, lends the style the leering inference of an adolescent joke. But short shorts are no joke; they are serious business, and women in major European and U.S. cities are currently risking their fashion reputations—and severe frostbite—to wear them.
Show Stopper. Manhattan Boutique Owner Jimmi York credits the craze to anti-midi, proleg passion. "The way women are buying and men are reacting," she explains, "it would seem legs have been out of sight for ten years, not ten months." Furrier Jacques Kaplan favors mink and broadtail shorts, priced up to $200, which are perfectly at home in his zebra-walled living room (see color picture). Says Kaplan: "They are the quickest way to fight the long length." Buyers couldn't agree more. In Paris, minishorts are an everynight, run-of-the-disco affair. They are particularly suited for dancing, according to one wearer last week, because "you don't have to remember to keep your knees together." Adds a model in London, where the style is going strong: "You can sit how you like and walk upstairs without everyone going 'Wow!' " Rome's current fashion collections starred shorts, with Valentino's all-sequined contribution the shows' stopper.
Los Angeles' Yves St. Laurent boutique is selling out every shipment that arrives; the favorite is a slightly flared, black velvet model ($60), with satin and crepe versions ($50) coming up fast. Actress Ursula Andress dines out in her bronze velvet shorts, and Raquel Welch had a special pair in white matte jersey run up for her to take on location in Spain. Staider ladies are rushing L.A.'s May Co. department store for their dotted-swiss knit mini over shorts ($26) or settling for Magnin's shorts-and-sweater outfit ($30).
Great Bodies. In spite of a record cold spell, Manhattan stores and boutiques can barely match supply to demand. Designers like Halston, Adolfo, Sant Angelo and Betsey Johnson are grinding them out for customers from Jackie Onassis, who stocked up on Halston's shorties for yacht wear, to career girls like Celanese Fabric Coordinator Jacquie Nelson, whose bosses last week granted her permission to wear her knit shorts to work. Bloomingdale's department store ran a hot-pants advertisement this month, only to discover that the resulting zoom in sales was partly due to a cross-town rush by Seventh Avenue manufacturers intent on snapping up a pattern, the better to start their own lines.