Hey there, Jim. I love this question because I love any excuse to talk about corduroy… one of my very favorite fabrics under the sun.
You're 100% right that corduroy for shorts is a bit asymmetrical. Traditionally, a textured cloth with some weight to it IS reserved for cooler weather. A couple of good examples would be moleskin or flannel… anything where you can feel the surface and it's not completely smooth. Around the office we call that a fabric's level of "touch." But the thing about this corduroy is that it doesn't actually have that much weight to it. In fact, the one we use for our 5-pockets and these shorts is lighter than denim. And no one thinks of jeans as being tied to any season!
This is verging on oversimplification, because I don't wanna get too technical on you, but one indication of the weight or beefiness of a corduroy fabric is its wale size. That's the number of raised ridges it has per inch. A super wide-wale corduroy is like a 5 or a 6. On the opposite end of the spectrum is a baby-wale corduroy, which is more like an 18 or a 20. Those higher numbers mean a finer fabric with a more subtle texture, which can go year-round more easily. A wider wale (lower number) is thicker and more plush and therefore more limited in seasonality. Our standard corduroy is a 14-wale which sits right in the middle. Not too wide, not too narrow. The Goldilocks of corduroys. At least when it comes to pants. That's why I wear our 5-pocket cords year-round… especially in the summer, when a gutsy blue denim can feel like too much weight. (I live in Atlanta; it gets pretty hot here.) And since it's 100% cotton, it breathes.
Another thing I love about corduroy is the way it carries color. Those ridges create this fantastic sense of dimension, where the light goes in and out of the valleys of the wales and the color doesn’t look totally solid. It has a gradiency or a high-low effect. Very cool… in every sense. So if it's temperature-cool and cool-cool… why not run it in a pair or shorts?
I'll give you one more thing that's cool about these shorts, now that I've talked your ear off about the fabric, and that's the waistband construction. I really like a side-tab waistband. (Also known as a DAKS waistband.) Unusually, it’s used on pants from sport shorts to dress trousers on Savile Row… they don’t love belts on Savile Row. I used to have tennis shorts from the ‘70s (Slazenger, Fred Perry) that had them – I loved ‘em. And I also had them on tweed pants from H. Borenstein! A real high-low mix. But it's practical, too, because it has no beltloops, which means no belt. (There's a bit of hidden elastic, so to get the fit right, you just adjust the tabs.) Belts and shorts are often a bit of a challenge for guys, more so than belts and pants. If you have a pair of white sneakers, or red espadrilles, or blue deck shoes, oftentimes a belt that's too matchy can look too torqued up. Too considered. And shorts are supposed to look easy and feel easy. Now, we make plenty of shorts that do have belt loops, so you should have fun with the belt if you feel like it. We make enough novelty belts — beaded, elastic, ribbon belts, hand-loomed cotton — that a tangential match is fine by me. I'm just saying, a side-tab waistband is one less egg to fry.
And lastly, credit where credit is due. We're not the first ones to do this — the real pioneers of corduroy shorts were the classic 1970s Ocean Pacifics. They came in a rainbow of colors and were beloved by surfers and skateboarders. Be a Southern Californian, or just look like one. I was none of those things, so I never owned a pair of OPs, but I was in the habit of chopping off my trousers when they got a little too worn out, regardless of fabric. So my own corduroy shorts are DIY jobs — a converted pair of grass green, medium-wale cords and khaki needlecords from Lands End. So I am due for an update, and this spring's Field Shorts are just the thing.
Anyway. Your suspicions are correct re: corduroy shorts, but I hope I've helped make the case. Yes, they're a little unconventional, and yes, you can totally pull them off… regardless of your level of fashion savvy. Give it a shot!
