You are a man. You like to look cool. You harbour faint hopes that you’ll one day perform some useful and vigorous physical task. You need only one thing: a pair of cargo shorts. They are the ultimate utilitarian statement, doing away entirely with any pretence to tailoring and chic. With their multiple pockets, and pockets within pockets, they are more at home on the building site or on a band’s roadie where the array of tools, phones, cards and keys are what gets you through the day. And hell, they even come in camouflage design.

Cargo shorts outside the hard-working professions do have some fashion pedigree, which is probably what informs their street cred nowadays. The Seattle grunge music scene of the early 1990s, which gave us Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam among others, is closely associated with a slacker look, or at least a vision of American working class culture, for which such items of clothing fitted the bill. Soon any bicycle courier worth their spokes would be seen sporting their loose-fitting pocketed shorts as they dodged their way perilously around the city streets. They provided the perfect place to keep radios, notebooks, maps and mobile phones, as well as letting the air circulate around the saddle region.

Camo cargo shorts, which had always been available from the local Army and Navy Stores and from the military surplus shops that were springing up everywhere, suddenly took on a new level of desirability. Who knows how many impulse buyers also ended up leaving the shop with a deck chair or a gas mask? Camouflage had a brief season in the high fashion spotlight around the mid 1990s, with practically everything from socks to skinny vest tops carrying the design. You would literally blend into the background wearing it. Then it started to get silly, climaxing with pink camouflage, which even the military holds only in reserve for ambushes from flocks of flamingos. It did momentarily bounce back in 2001 with Destiny’s Child’s promo for Survivor, but after that tour de force, nobody dared pull off the look again. Except, that is, the cargo shorts community, which nonchalantly weathered the high fashion storms with barely a sideways glance.

Modern wearers of cargo shorts, which can probably now be described as being a staple item of men’s fashion, include the BMXers and skateboarders we know and love from our suburban precincts. They still have the power to look a tad rebellious and slovenly when worn in the proper context. But they’re just as much at home on uncle Bob while he tends to the barbecue or trims the hedge. They are a true working class hero of the fashion world.

That’s not to say there isn’t a thirst for some original gear, though. Vintage clothing stores will turn up some fine examples of 90s and noughties cargoes, and you might even be able to imagine they were worn in a Seattle mosh pit at the height of the Sub Pop generation. Whether you go khaki, blue, camouflage or green, they make a cool summer look with just a hint of edge. And plenty of pocket capacity.

Author Bio: Vintage fashion for men can take on many forms. Even items such as men\’s cargo and camo shorts find their place in vintage clothing outlets. Nigel covers vintage styles and fashion trends online.

Category: Culture
Keywords: