The New York Times "Style" section has another in-depth article about men exposing their legs today. This week Guy Trebay tries to determine why it's become so much more acceptable this summer than ever before for men to wear shorts to work. He comes up with an answer pretty easily: because Sean Avery says so. When Avery interned at Vogue this summer, he wore shorts suits to the office. He offers Trebay lots of reasons shorts make more sense than pants:

“Why go to work and be hot?” he asked last week, adding that there was no compelling business reason to look modest and dull on the job. “You can look good and not have that boring-type look … Why are women allowed to do it and not men? … Women have the option of wearing a dress."

But Avery wasn't merely trying to level the dress-code playing field with his women colleagues. He was doing them a service:

“I haven’t asked them, but I’m sure women like looking at a man’s calves, or if a man has them, nice ankles,” Mr. Avery said.

He's totally right. Ankles are the new biceps, cankles are the new beer bellies. Someone have Thom Browne send out a memo.

Shorts Crack the Code [NYT]
Related: Fashionable Men Are Wearing High-Waters and Cutoffs This Summer
The Very Leggy Summer [NYM]