Found! Your Shorts Alternative, The Skort
Tina, here.
Alert: You may think these are short-shorts, or worse, a miniskirt. They are not. I have discovered the summer equivalent of wearing yoga pants in winter to your child's school assembly: wearing a tennis skirt in summer to the grocery or baseball games.
**Newly updated with current links to my favorite skorts!**
It's skorts! And so much cuter! For those of you who won't wear skorts, check out our post on summer chinos. But if you're game, give the skort a try!
Here, my friends, is your shorts alternative for summer, skorts, aka the tennis skirt.
I hope you see the irony in this outfit. Do I play tennis? Of course! At least twice a year! Kidding. I am actually teaching myself to play tennis, old school, with a backboard. Which is how I fell in love with the tennis skirt as a wardrobe piece.
The thing is, you can wear these to play tennis, walk, jog, or what have you. But if you go outside a sporty environment where sportswear is not really the dress code of choice (like in a restaurant, at the movies) and you are wearing your tennis skirt / skort, please hide your bum with a t-shirt or jacket tied around your waist. Tennis skirts can be reeeeaaaal short, and do you want to be that mom whose child is scarred by their friends' seeing your cheeks hanging out your skirt? You do not.
If you'll be outside all day, hot and sweaty, the sports skort is perfect with a t-shirt and sandals or espadrilles. But keep it on the longer side. Fun fact: even if they are the exact same length, skirts or skorts will appear to look longer than shorts. Here's a longer golf skort I like.
Wear fun jewelry, but keep the whole look very, very casual. And don't forget to hide your bum if your skort is any shorter than mine is here. Made of that great wicking fabric, and a bit longer than mine here, you may want to buy 2!
To wear colorful tops with your tennis skirt or skort, choose a light grey, white or even navy on the bottom. If you wear a pair of black skorts, they will look sharp, but only pair black or white tops with them.
Did you know that if you are wearing black on black, and the blacks don't match perfectly that it's ok, as long as they are different materials? This is true for mixing a black suit jacket with black pants, too.
See how much I love you all? I'm showing you what this looks like underneath and why it's such a brilliant wardrobe hero for summer. It's spandex shorts under a skirt overlay so no one sees what they shouldn't, like spandex cupping your bum, or crotch. Sorry, you know it has to be said.
Sneakers or tennis shoes for exercising; espadrilles and a cute top for streetwear.
But I urge you to keep the top sporty, too, like this polo. This isn't a "going-out" alternative!
We typically get rid of polos in closets because they can go camp counselor real quick. But I make an exception if you pair it with a cute skort for a very casual summer day of running errands or the like. And if it's fitted. And doesn't have the name of a camp on it.
Want us up close and personal? Get us in your closet now! We’re booking in-home wardrobe makeovers now. Check out our wardrobe packages from Tina Adams Consulting here.
Best,
Tina
