Look of the Week: Who wears short shorts? Juergen Teller

You might have an idea as to what fashion people wear to runway shows. Then photographer Juergen Teller shows up, as always, to prove you wrong. Even amid the hooplah of peacocking influencers and frazzled fashion editors, Teller’s flash of Ibiza club-colored sportswear demanded a double take. He wore them a number of times throughout Paris Fashion Week, including to the Schiaparelli show, in a café across the way from the Eiffel Tower not far from the Commes des Garcon catwalk, and most recently at the opening of the Tate’s latest exhibition, “The ‘90s: Art and Fashion,” in London. In fact, he’s been wearing a version of these shorts since 2004. Many people in fashion extol the virtues of a ‘uniform.’ Designers in particular will often take their catwalk bow in clothes radically different from the ones they’ve spent the last 15 minutes convincing you to buy. Take Jonathan Anderson’s blue jeans, Salomon shoes and crewneck sweaters for example, or Carolina Herrera’s crisp white button-down tucked into an A-line skirt. “I spend all my time thinking about what everyone else is wearing, so the last thing I want to do is spend too much time thinking about what I put on,” Michael Kors told Time Magazine of his signature jeans, aviators, sneakers and black T-shirt formula in 2016. Getting dressed takes up sacred time, and time is money — especially for fashion folk. But while most embrace an inoffensive, fly-under-the-radar outfit, Teller, an image-making pariah, unsurprisingly takes a different approach. In his photography work, he’s recently been able to puncture fashion’s bubble with flat, fabulously ironic celebrity portraits that reject the conventional glossy magazine spread, and asks bravely: Why do we need another in-studio photoshoot with Natalie Portman in a Dior gown when we could see her amidst the chaos of a Hollywood tourist merch shop? The way Teller packages himself is the same. He repeatedly pairs his Stabilo-hued shorts cut high on the thigh (“What’s the point of shorts if they’re not short?” He once told the Financial Times) with ASICS sneakers worn with ankle socks as if he’s fresh off a jog round the park. It’s a head-to-toe snub of the unwritten dress codes in an industry that cashes in on insecurity and appearances. That is his first flex. The second is that these trademark briefs are reportedly custom-made Celine — a tongue-in-cheek gift from his close friend Phoebe Philo during her tenure — and so they get the fashion seal of approval anyway.