Harry Styles and Paul Mescal Agree: Thighs Are In

Summer’s hottest menswear trend? Thighs. Just ask Harry Styles who has been on a rampage of ultra-mini short shorts in London over the past few days.

Styles was spotted out in the British capital today in a look so retro-tinged, you’d think he’d plucked it right out of 1972. The singer kicked off his outfit with a royal blue track jacket from Adidas. Styles popped the collar on his long sleeve piece before slinging a black crossbody bag across his shoulder. From there, he wore a pair of striped tube socks that grazed his calves with Adidas’s cult sneaker: the Samba. To round everything out, Styles flashed a bit of thigh by way of black running shorts. He wore rockstar black glasses and held what looked to be a to-go bag in his hand.

While Styles’s pair of shorts didn’t reach Paul Mescal levels of thigh action, they certainly keyed in on a recent shift happening in men’s fashion. Long gone are the calf-length basketball shorts of years past. Instead, stars are instead opting for tinier shorts that could be best described as “thigh grazers.”

Styles was spotted out in London wearing a more Mescal-coded outfit earlier this week. He wore a maroon pair of Adidas running shorts that, to the eye, appeared to be five inches shorter when compared to the pair we styled for his latest outfit. On that occasion, he accessorized his summer shorts with a blue zip-up, graphic tee, and his trusty athletic sneakers.

It’s easy strike comparisons between Styles and Mescal, the latter whom has become the defacto poster boy for riskily short shorts. The Irishman has been spotted in thigh grazers for a handful of outings recently, from Gucci’s menswear show in June (where he wore just his boxers) to his viral walks around New York City and London. Usually, for the second activity, he’s also flashing a bit of his midsection.

Nowadays, being classified as an “Internet boyfriend” must come with a playbook on how to style your shorts for summer.