{"id":79480,"date":"2026-08-24T15:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/79480\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T15:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:59:08","slug":"from-tokyo-to-london-heatwaves-send-men-to-work-in-shorts-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/79480\/","title":{"rendered":"From Tokyo to London, heatwaves send men to work in shorts"},"content":{"rendered":"

WARSAW\/LONDON: Scorching summer temperatures have \u200bdone what decades of dress-down Fridays have failed to do – get men to the office in shorts.<\/p>\n

Japan’s capital led the way. This year the metropolitan government’s long-standing no-tie, no-jacket “Cool Biz” campaign took a step further by encouraging its staff to ditch long trousers, and even try T-shirts and sneakers.
As heatwaves<\/a> mounted across \u200cEurope, other workers followed in \u2060Tokyo’s wake, \u2060sometimes with the encouragement of authorities and management, sometimes without.<\/p>\n

LINE BETWEEN COMMUTER AND HOLIDAY STYLES BLURRING<\/p>\n

Major retailers told Reuters linen shorts and suits were flying off the shelves \u200bin Britain, as men opted for breathable fabrics more commonly associated with Mediterranean climes.<\/p>\n

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“The lines between ‘commuter’ and ‘holiday’ style are blurring,” Martha Hibberd, menswear buyer \u200bat British department store John Lewis, said.
Marks and Spencer said sales of men’s linen trousers in June to July jumped 183% compared with the same period a year ago.H&M – one of Europe’s biggest fashion retailers – said it was bringing in lighter clothes and delaying the release of \u200bautumnal lines to later in the year.<\/p>\n

“It looks like we’re not going back when \u2060it comes \u200cto climate change<\/a>,” Andreas Lowenstam, H&M’s head of menswear design, said.<\/p>\n

Hugo Boss said it has increased its \u200bassortment of tailored shorts. Its “Boss \u200bby Beckham” range in collaboration with soccer star David Beckham, offers a pair of cotton tailored \u2060shorts for \u20ac229 ($267.27).<\/p>\n

‘SHORTS ARE FOR WEEKENDS’<\/p>\n

The trend was there to see in Europe’s business hubs, \u200bfrom London’s Canary Wharf to the streets of Frankfurt. But there were some limits.<\/p>\n

At Norway’s largest bank, DNB<\/a>, staff were welcome to wear shorts and skirts, spokesperson Vidar Korsberg Dalsbo told Reuters.<\/p>\n

“However, we are probably talking about smarter garments with some length rather than a ballerina skirt or a cheeky pair of 1970s-style soccer shorts.”<\/p>\n

In June, Gianfranco Lot, Switzerland head at insurance group Swiss Re, wrote an email to staff with tips on how to stay cool.<\/p>\n

Alongside the list of suggestions – such as drinking water, breaking when needed, and taking a dip in Lake Zurich just across from the office – there was a quick reminder that “shorts are for \u200cweekends”.<\/p>\n

Pushing back against the traditions, there were signs that some workers were prepared to take a stand for their lighter attire.<\/p>\n

Germany’s biggest union, IG Metall, and services sector union Verdi both told Reuters they believed dress codes \u200bshould be relaxed or waived \u200bif necessary at times of \u2060higher temperatures.<\/p>\n

“Summers are getting hotter, heat waves are becoming more frequent, and the strain on workers is noticeably increasing,” Moriz Tiedemann, occupational health expert at IG Metall, said.<\/p>\n

Some were already taking matters into their own hands.<\/p>\n

In Warsaw, one bus driver decided he had had enough \u200bof the standard uniform of long polyester trousers and turned up to work one day this month in a skirt, as a protest.<\/p>\n

“These materials make us sweat and overheat,” said the man, who only gave his name as Darek.<\/p>\n

At the last count, a petition launched by one of his colleagues, asking the Polish capital’s transport authority ZTM to let drivers wear shorts during hot weather, had collected more than 400 signatures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARSAW\/LONDON: Scorching summer temperatures have \u200bdone what decades of dress-down Fridays have failed to do – get men…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2574,50903,13687,50901,8,50904,52,50902],"class_list":["post-79480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tokyo","tag-climate-change","tag-dnb","tag-dress-code","tag-heatwaves","tag-japan","tag-shorts-in-the-office","tag-tokyo","tag-work-in-shorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}