Now I have a treat for you. I can’t claim I actually crashed earlier in the year when I stuck my neck out and wrote to you about British men and beards—but let’s put it this way: Surprise, surprise, bearded boys proved to be rather popular with girls. So here’s a sequel. Ever in pursuit of pleasing news from this side of the pond, I bring you an in-depth report on the latest runaway British male trend of summer 2013. Allow me to introduce the Mofty: pretty young London boys who are taking to the streets, clubs and festivals wearing a startling array of pretty shorts (which are getting shorter by the week) with pretty shirts, in all sorts of colorful prints.
Mofty? I don’t know what it means, either (any ideas, please let us know). I have to thank my daughter Maisie for alerting me to the terminology. I’d just come home from a long tube journey one sunny evening and noticed—eyes on stalks —that crowds of boys kept getting on and off wearing slim, knee-length shorts in many colors and patterns: pink, baby blue, yellow, red, striped, polka-dotted. All of them were wearing them nonchalantly rolled up at the hem—a uniform turn-up of about three-quarters of an inch. When a teenager lolloped on wearing a blue denim pair covered in pink chintzy roses and proceeded to canoodle with his girlfriend, well, I had to call my 20-year-old spy in the field the minute I got home.
“Oh yes, Mummy!” she sighed patiently. “We call them Mofties. They’ve all got those haircuts short at the side and long on top? And shirts and T-shirts with, like, little flowers or birds on them? And old-school Air Max Nike trainers in all these bright colors. Some have leopard-spot bits on them too.” And then she texted me a picture of the shorts the boy she shares her flat with had just bought. There he was, resplendent in beige chino-shorts trimmed with pink-and-blue Liberty print turn-ups. “Gosh,” I replied. “And what does Mofty stand for?” “Dunno,” came the response. “It’s just what everyone started calling them after Hideout in Croatia [a festival earlier this summer]. And now they’re starting to wear them shorter and shorter.”
The closest to an explanation I’ve received comes from Jeremy Langmead, editor at Mr Porter, Net-a-Porter’s brother site. “Could it be Man of the Year?” he hazarded. “But I don’t know, either.” These teenagers! A study of Mr Porter’s inventory shows, sure enough, however, that there are quite a few Mofty-looking shorts going on there. Micro-polka dotted ones. A pair prettily decorated with minute embroidered flowers.
Checking around, I hit on the men’s department of the British high street store River Island. Peruse that website and you will see the very definition of Mofty style as it’s been worn by young, skinny boys everywhere here.
I called Andy Grant, River Island’s head of menswear buying. He hadn’t heard the Mofty-word either, but he was sounding like a very happy man, because, sure enough, sales in boy-fashion are soaring over here. “I can’t remember a time when British menswear has been as exciting as this. They love color and prints.” But who started it, Andy, who’s leading it? “I can’t really say it’s coming from any one thing. I think it’s partly Harry Styles and that whole boy-band thing.”
“It started out smart and preppy,” he continued. “But then we noticed boys at festivals this summer starting to wear printed swim-shorts as shorts with all kinds of tight colorful tops. And it’s gone really fast from there.” I clicked over to J.Crew menswear for a Stateside comparison. Sure enough, the home of American young-preppy style is moving along the same vector. Brightly hued, color-blocked, slim-fit shorts are there aplenty, and I notice another key refinement going on: hemline choice—from a knee-grazing eleven inches all the way up to a minishort five.
Well, I’ve learned a lot this week. One thing I should point out is that Mofties in no way intersect with Men with Beards. Mofty boys don’t grow beards because . . . they’re too young and far too pretty. But that doesn’t stop English girls going absolutely wild over them. Can’t you see why?
http://www.kissyprom.co.uk/white-prom-dresses-online
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