Five Summer Trends Fashion Editors Are Quietly Buying Before Everyone Else

The tiny denim short had a good run, but the shape everyone is actually reaching for now falls much closer to the knee. Longer, looser shorts, the Bermuda kind your dad probably wore on a beach holiday in the nineties, have become the silhouette fashion people default to this season, and somehow nobody’s mad about it. It’s less about showing skin and more about how the proportion falls, roomy through the leg, high on the waist, with enough length that you can wear them to actual places instead of just the beach.
Ask your sister

Mini shorts always came with a small tax. The tugging every ten minutes, the sitting-down anxiety, the outfit that only worked for three hours before it stopped working. Longer shorts don’t ask that of you. A pair like the pleated pinstripe Bermuda shorts gives you actual tailoring, front pleats, a proper waistband, the kind of details that make shorts look like a real bottom instead of an afterthought. If you want something breezier for the actual heat, linen Bermuda shorts do the job without clinging to your legs the way denim does past noon. And if you’d rather keep it minimal, COS makes a pleated pair with almost no design noise at all, just a clean plissé finish that works whether you’re dressing up or down.

The styling trick with longer shorts is treating them like trousers, not like shorts. Tuck in a fitted top so the waist doesn’t disappear into all that extra fabric, or go the other way entirely and let an oversized shirt hang loose over them for that off-duty, borrowed-from-someone-taller look. Both work, they just send different messages.
Footwear matters more here than it did with mini shorts, since there’s more leg to balance out. Flat leather sandals keep things easy and grounded, especially the crossed-strap kind that don’t disappear against your skin tone. Chunkier shoes work too if you want a bit of edge, but keep one half of the outfit calm so the whole look doesn’t fight itself. You can eat lunch in these, sit on a train, bend down to pick something up off the floor, all without recalculating your outfit halfway through the day. Mini shorts never really gave you that deal.

TLDR: The mini short is stepping back and the longer, looser Bermuda shape is taking over, roomy through the leg, high on the waist, hitting near the knee instead of mid-thigh. Try a tailored pinstripe pair for structure, linen if you’re dealing with actual heat, or a stripped-back plissé pair if you want zero design noise. Style them like trousers, not shorts, tucking in a fitted top or letting an oversized shirt hang loose over them, and finish with flat sandals so the leg has somewhere calm to land.
Sister Shops:
Zara — Pleated Pinstripe Bermuda Shorts
Zara — Pleated Linen Bermuda Shorts
COS — Pleated Bermuda Shorts
Zara — Flat Leather Sandals