Why a Hoodie and Shorts Is the Perfect Fall Outfit

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The world of menswear is eternally divisive. Are chore coats classic or overplayed? Are Sambas cool, lame, or so lame that they’re actually cool in a winking, ironic sort of way? There is, however, at least one universal truth that even the most rancorous of sartorial pros can’t argue: The best fall outfit is a hoodie and shorts.

At this stage, you’re likely nodding along in agreement, already picturing yourself bundled up in a big, cozy sweatshirt with your legs left free and breezy. But why, exactly, does this one particular combination of garments arouse such an invariably positive reaction?

“Well, there’s the novelty factor,” says Lawrence Schlossman, one half of the popular fashion-and- culture podcast Throwing Fits. “The season’s changing, there’s this invigorating newness. And at the same time, this is an outfit that’s very familiar—they’re two things that people like to wear independently of each other.” Indeed, there’s an element of surprise to wearing a pair of shorts with a hoodie, two things that—on paper—belong to distinctly different seasons. As Schlossman contends: “It’s a fun juxtaposition, you’re playing with the incongruent nature of these two things.”

Paul Mescal ranks among the biggest proponents of the hoodie-and-shorts look.

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Pharrell has never met a pair of shorts he didn’t like.

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Schlossman notes that it helps that both hoodies and shorts have become fetishized garments of late. “They’ve risen in stature,” he says of shorts in particular. “They’ve crept into the conversation, and people are experimenting with them.” He traces the interest in shorts as a fashionable item to the great Patagonia Baggies moment that began during the rise of gorpcore. Hoodies, meanwhile, have been a fixation in men’s style circles forever, but especially in the last decade as streetwear rose to greater importance in the fashion world.

For Derek Guy, who the chronically online will know as @DieWorkwear, two famous images helped cement the idea of shorts and a hoodie as an ideal combination among menswear fans in recent years. The first was pictures of the late Princess Diana in her on-the-go uniform of a baggy sweatshirt and running shorts. “[The photos reentered the conversation] at this moment where guys realized they could take fashion inspiration from anywhere, even women,” Guy says. The other is a perennial menswear mood board photo: Harrison Ford in shorts and a knit sweater at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.

Nobody has ever looked cooler in a baggy sweatshirt and athletic shorts than the People’s Princess.

Kieran Doherty/Reuters

Anwar Hussein/WireImage

Guy believes these images resonate for a simple reason. “Most outfits look better with a sweater or accessories.” Adding something as simple as a hoodie or sweater to a basic T-shirt and shorts can instantly make it look more polished, or like an intentional outfit, as opposed to something you threw on to get from point A to B.” Guy, too, notes the novelty factor. “In W. David Marx’s book Status and Culture, he says that style is often understanding the rules of some social group, and then adding an element that’s a little unexpected, to make people think about why something works. That unexpected mix can make an outfit look more stylish.” Indeed, shorts and a hoodie technically deviate from the “golden ratio” theory of outfit building, but it’s that very rebellion that may give the look its indisputable appeal.