Once the weather gets warmer it’s time to cool down, and capris are exactly the cozy, light summer wear you will want to don.  Since they were designed by European fashion designer Sonja de Lennart in 1948, capri pants, also known in some areas as long shorts or three quarters, are most popular with women.

Capri pants tend to be lightweight, cutting at about mid-calf or just below. Longer capris have been called high waters. Capri pants became popular with women in the 1960’s, much to the chagrin of many husbands. Suddenly, their dress-wearing wives were walking around in tight pants that stopped at her mid-calf.

This whole controversial fashion debacle came about when Laura Petrie (played by Mary Tyler-Moore) started to wear tight capri pants in the hit TV sitcom, The Dick Van Dyke Show.

The 70s, 80s and 90s saw a drop in the capri wearing trend, but they came back into fashion once again in the beginning of the 21st century.  Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal wore capri pants in many matches. This has sparked an era of men wearing these pants.  

Plus Size Men

Capri pants designed for men are informally termed manpri (or man-pri) pants (also guy-pri pants) in North America. Manpri is a portmanteau term consisting of the words man and capri.

Whether on men or women, made of cotton or polyester, capri pants can benefit anyone and they are a no-brainer fashion in the aesthetic department.