Just before Covid, we visited Seattle to work with the creative team of Nordstrom, my first time in that cool city. After a day or so I realised that apart from the very nice customs officers, I hadn’t seen one man in trousers; the whole city was dedicated to shorts. Shorts on bikers and bankers and bakers, on juniors and seniors, even on the homeless. Men were unanimous in their refusal of regular slacks or fatigues, their styles differed a bit from safari, mostly in drab colours like beige, khaki and faded indigo. Occasionally, some butts were paraded in the shortest fringed denim shorts; the Summer of Love revisited as a Summer of Business as Usual. Why did Seattle’s men love to show their legs? Was it freedom or vanity, or both, was the question!

While travelling and on flights over the past couple of weeks, I have encountered more children than ever before. It seems that staying home for school holidays is no longer an option, everybody is on the road. Parents with several kids struggle to hold them together and it is a great moment to observe the families of today. Father and child in printed T-shirts, mother and daughter in denim and beige knits, brother and sister in sibling workwear. Grandmother and granddaughter are also seen in magnificent matching glitter. Public expressions of endearment with kissing, cuddling and hugging, tender moments while waiting in line without being on-line. Is this the result of parenting during covid when people finally really discovered their kids? Age differences seem non-consequential and the dynamics of being together are at work 24/7 with the remarkable return of card and board games as well as book reading. Where are the phones?   

It all begins with an idea.