Are J.Crew’s New Boxer Shorts Better Than the Original?
J.Crew’s women’s boxer shorts were first mentioned on the site in 2021, which is the same the year I got my first pair. They were high rise, just wide enough, and not too short. Since then, I’ve bought the boxers in navy (twice), white, hydrangea (previously described on our site as “vaguely medicinal shade of periwinkle blue”), blue and burgundy stripes, brown and black stripes, and white with a cherry print. As I’ve collected pairs, I’ve noticed that each year they change slightly — and I’ve observed the evolution like Charles Darwin in the Galapagos Islands. The biggest changes I noticed were in 2025: The serif J.CREW at the waistband turned into a cursive JC, a row of buttons appeared in the front, and the initial three-inch inseam shortened to 2.5 inches. I didn’t mind, so long as they were comfortable.
This year, J.Crew has once again created a new version, and it couldn’t be more different than 2021’s and 2025’s. They’re now available in two materials: the End-on-End Cotton Boxer Short (100 percent cotton) and the Boxer Short in Seersucker(a 64 percent cotton and 34 percent modal-rayon blend). They still have the easy, breezy, barely there feel of earlier pairs. They welcome the fresh air (or the “wind” of an air conditioner). That said, there’s nothing like the ventilation of the old boxer shorts, which were cut “in a way that allows more airflow,” as fellow senior writer Emma Wartzman (who also owns four) says. It’s like the difference between a Honeywell fan on “low” and a breeze. Alas, comparison is the thief of joy.
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J.Crew Boxer Short in Seersucker
In the product copy, J.Crew says the shorts are updated with a slightly higher rise and more of a relaxed fit. As well-intentioned as the update might have been, there’s actually less room through the leg compared to the original, which were wider starting at the hips. It’s my biggest gripe with the new boxer shorts. Not helping matters is the inseam decreased again by a half-inch. Somehow, no doubt because the boxers now sit higher on the waist, they feel even shorter (akin to a Soffe dolphin short).
To my great chagrin, the details of 2025’s boxer shorts meant they looked less like regular-schmegular cotton shorts (which 2021’s did) and more like boxer-boxers. (They’re now similar to boxer shorts from Leset or Comme Si.) Not that that stopped me from wearing them as my “Going to the convenience store, do you want anything?” shorts. I had hoped they could occupy the liminal space between what you wear “inside” and “outside,” but out in the world they just didn’t. In lieu of the former button fly, there’s an opening (which could be an homage to J.Crew’s men’s boxers) that doesn’t stay flat. It’s as if you never returned your ex-boyfriend’s boxers. Then there are the fabrics. I understand seersucker puckers, but this seersucker ends up rumpled like a bedsheet of an 18th-century courtesan. It’s also a rough-spun-looking End-on-End cotton compared to the smooth End-on-End cotton (and cotton poplin) used before.
Unlike the old versions, you can tell when I’ve slept in them. Our former writer Chloe Anello — who was first on the Strategist team to write about J.Crew’s women’s boxer shorts (the Cotton Poplin Boxer Shorts then) — bought them because “worst case, I reasoned, I could wear them to sleep.” Well, that’s all the End-on-End Cotton Boxer Short and Boxer Short in Seersucker are to me. I know J.Crew officially categorizes its women’s boxer shorts as pajamas, but this is the first time I’ve ever thought about them just as pajamas. Maybe I can’t ask for more than that. They have pockets at least, and that may be all that matters.
More women’s boxer shorts to consider …
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Gap’s cotton poplin has been described as “like biting into a crisp Bosc pear.”
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A Ralph Lauren–y check print at a Uniqlo price.
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"Your favorite button-up in short form," according to the product copy.
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