Nothing here yet.
My first pair of proper summer shorts came from a supermarket multipack, three for a price I can't even remember, and they taught me that an elastic waistband and a drawstring is not the same thing as a waistband that actually sits where it should. By July they'd dropped two inches and I spent a whole barbecue hitching them up. Lesson learned early: fit matters more than anything else in this category.
The good news is shorts are forgiving once you sort the fit, because they're doing half the work of an outfit on their own. A plain pair in stone or navy sits under almost any t-shirt or polo you own, and a linen shirt worn open over a plain tee with shorts underneath is about as easy as dressing gets in warm weather. Trainers or a simple leather sandal both work, it's really the shorts that set the tone, smart ones with a loafer, something in a technical fabric with a trainer and you're sorted for most of what summer throws at you.
Where you notice the difference between a decent pair and a cheap one is after a few washes, not on day one. A proper cotton or linen blend softens and keeps its shape, a flimsy poly mix goes thin at the pocket seams and starts looking tired by August. I've got a pair of chino shorts, four summers old now, that have been balled up in a beach bag, sat on a thousand times, washed more than I'd like to admit, and they still sit right on the waist and hang the same length as the day I bought them. Wash them inside out, skip the tumble dryer if you can be bothered, and they'll outlast most of what you buy them to go with.
Construction is where the cheap ones give themselves away. Check the inside seams, a well finished pair has them overlocked or felled so they don't fray after a couple of washes, and the waistband should have proper belt loops stitched flat, not just tacked on. Pockets are the other tell, a deep, properly bagged pocket that doesn't gape when you sit down versus a shallow one that spits your phone out the second you bend over. Buttons and zips should feel like they'll survive more than one summer, not like they're made of the same plastic as a Christmas cracker toy.
This whole category suits the bloke who wants to look sorted without trying, whether he's twenty five and off to a barbecue or sixty five and heading to the golf club bar afterwards.
Nothing here yet.