All Shorts
You choose a pair of shorts at the hem and almost nowhere else. A slim chino cut runs short, a cargo lands near the knee, and a parachute leg runs long and loose. Everything else about a pair follows from where it stops. That is the first decision and most of the others come with it.
All Shorts
Shorts for Men and Women by Inseam Length
Where a pair stops changes how the whole thing reads, which is why length is worth settling before anything else. Go short and slim and you have committed to summer, with a shirt over the top or nothing at all. Go to the knee and the shorts stop being the loudest thing in the outfit, which is exactly what that length is for. Go past it, into the long parachute leg, and shorts start behaving like a trouser that has been cut off, changing the shoes underneath more than the shirt above. Men's shorts and women's shorts split the same span by wearer.
Chino, Cargo and Parachute Shorts
Once the length is settled the rest is cloth and colour. Cotton twill runs through the bulk of the range, a diagonal weave that resists creasing. A lighter parachute cloth sits at the other end of the range. Swim is a separate calculation altogether, because the only length that counts in the water is the one you can move in, and swim shorts sits on its own page for exactly that reason. So decide where you want the hem to land, and then choose between chino, cargo and parachute inside that.