Massimo Alba Kevin Shorts

Most men's shorts are a trouser with the legs removed, and they behave like it, pulling across the front the moment you sit down. The pleat solves that. It is a released fold at the waist that gives the cloth somewhere to travel, and on a short leg, where there is less fabric to absorb movement, it matters more than it does on a trouser. Combine it with a drawstring waist and you have removed both of the things that make shorts uncomfortable: the pull at the thigh and the belt at the waist.

Pure linen keeps it cool and gives the surface its slub and irregularity. Fango is mud, which sounds worse than it looks: a warm grey-brown that goes with white, with indigo, and with the entire dust palette this house works in. Cut relaxed rather than close, this is a short for a hot day that does not look like sportswear.

Good men's shorts are genuinely difficult to buy, and this is the pair that solved it for us. The pleat and the drawstring are the two details we would not compromise on.

One hundred percent linen, made in Italy. Pleated front, drawstring waist, relaxed fit. Colour: Fango.

Relaxed through the thigh with the pleat adding room where a short usually runs out of it. The drawstring means you set the waist, so take your usual size and adjust. Linen relaxes across a day and comes back in the wash. Expect creasing at the front from the first sitting, which is the cloth and not the make.

With the Bowles button-up in white or the Kos collarless, untucked. With the Genova in Soft Pink. Fango against white does the most with the least, and it takes a sandal or a plain low sneaker.

Wash cool and hang to dry. Linen softens with each wash. Press if you want them sharp for an evening, and do not expect it to survive lunch. Our general care guidance covers the rest.

The Ionio2 Trouser in Ferro is the same cloth at full length. The Kos Collarless Pop-Over is the linen and cotton shirt, the Bowles Button-Up is the camp collar, and the Agone2 Shorts are the corduroy. There is more on the house on the Massimo Alba designer page. Everything we carry from Massimo Alba is listed together.