Swim Shorts

While women’s bathing suits seem to work on the principle of the mood ring—changing every season at the whim of some designer who never has to wear them—men’s swimwear hasn’t had a sea change since full-bodied tank suits that covered the elbows and knees went out of style. Sure, there have been minor fashion breakouts along the way: the misguided banana hammock vogue was something to be avoided unless you were Michael Phelps; below-the-knee board shorts, or jams, which made sense if you were a surfer, but looked silly on grownups. But for the most part men didn’t so much follow swimsuit fashion as buy new ones only because the waist band gave out and the suit came off …