Mr Tom Ford once said, “A man should never wear shorts in the city.” But a decade later, Mr Milo Ventimiglia is a man who disagrees. The This Is Us actor sent the internet into a flustered meltdown after visiting the gym earlier this month in shorts that were as high as a pair of Y-fronts. Ventimiglia’s upper-upper thighs set off a chain reaction of shorts-related debates, with The Guardian asking “how short should shorts be?”

Thankfully, there’s a shortish answer to this question. Over on Gen Z trend harbinger TikTok, users have established that shorts with a 5.5in inseam – the length that shows just a peek of thigh, but not too much – immediately makes the guy wearing them more attractive. (A bit like the Fibonacci sequence, but hornier.) Though we’d usually caution taking style advice that feels like a meme, the sartorial physics here actually make sense: shorter shorts elongate the body, making the wearer appear taller and more proportionate than they would in baggier, longer shorts.

Between the end of lockdown and the start of summer colliding, it’s perhaps only natural that we’d want to let it all hang out this year. But the trend for baring all hasn’t come out of nowhere – Messrs Paul Mescal, Harry Styles and Orlando Bloom all went viral for wearing short shorts last year – and it isn’t just limited to legs, either. In 2019, shirtless suits (blazers being worn with nothing underneath) didn’t really take off beyond the runway and the red carpet, but the influence of subversive nakedness is still being keenly felt in menswear.

Last week, BODE – the quilty, crafty New York brand of the moment – presented its AW21 collection, which included short shorts in bright blue, as well as mesh T-shirts and netted white shirts worn with nothing underneath. Rick Owens, no stranger to nudity (just look up the “peepholes” from AW15), sent models down the runway earlier this year with their torsos bare. Crop tops and skirts, though by no means mainstream, have made innings into the menswear world in recent months, too.

All of this is not to say that you should start browsing MR PORTER for things that will show off as much as possible – this writer will not be freeing the nipple in a mesh top anytime soon – but if want to give your legs some much-needed time in the sun, well, this is your chance.