Capri pants: an elegant, practical summer solution

Jorts have their moment, but they are not an elegant option. Capri pants offer a tidy alternative when jeans or tailored trousers are too hot and shorts feel inappropriate — for example, when it’s sunny while you are getting dressed but the forecast looks dodgy later, or during a heatwave when office-appropriate shorts won’t do.

The style was born in Munich in the late 1940s when Sonja de Lennart shortened the Katharine Hepburn–style trouser to a below-the-knee crop with a little slit at the hem and a high waist. She named them after the Italian island, and Edith Head dressed Audrey Hepburn in de Lennart’s capris for the 1954 film Sabrina.

They lingered on in the south of France, enjoyed a renaissance in the 2000s with Carrie Bradshaw, and proved they work as well on city streets as on the beach. Getting the proportions right is key: avoid going too literal on 1950s nostalgia or they can feel cutesy, and be careful they don’t read as trousers hastily rolled up.

Italy, Munich

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