Tesi Johnson, Gleaner Writer

Left: Even the most slender legs look shapely in a snug pair of hot pants. Outfit by Biggy. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer.   Right: You will no longer have to desecrate your jeans to make your own pair of Daisy Dukes. Shorts taken at My Closet, Shop 14, Midway Mall, 40A Mannings Hill Road. - Photo by Tesi Johnson

A pair of shorts can be an intimidating garment. It tends to expose those curves and contours, or lack thereof, of the thighs, buttocks and overall leg, of which women are often self-conscious.

Shorts sometimes extend as far as the mid-calf, though never covering the entire length of the leg, thus the definition and variety of shorts are broad enough to comfortably accommodate legs of all lengths and shapes. So even if you don't have the Tina Turner legs suitable for shorts of the more minuscule variety, there is a pair to suit you among the different possible cuts.

Short-listed

Cut-off shorts are home-made shorts created by cutting the legs off trousers, usually jeans. Daisy Dukes, the most popular variety of cut-offs, are extremely short, form-fitting, denim cut-off shorts, named after the character Daisy Duke, of the popular 1980s American television series Dukes of Hazzard. Daisy Dukes had recently revived popularity when pop singer Jessica Simpson played Daisy Duke in the film version of the show.

Hot pants, short shorts, or 'b-riders' as Jamaicans are wont to say, are short tight shorts, often made of cotton or nylon that are meant to emphasise the buttocks and legs.

Capris are form-fitting shorts that extend below the knee.

Bermuda shorts are knee- length shorts, named for Bermuda, because of the garb that American tourists would wear there.

Cargo shorts are typically loose khaki shorts with cargo pockets, much like cargo pants, but stop at the knee or mid-calf. Nowadays, cargo shorts are made of many different types of materials, not just twill.

And then there are shorts, board shorts, long johns, walking shorts, cycle shorts, track shorts, bun huggers and racing briefs, and even more varieties of the leg-loving garment.

Left: Cuffed Bermuda shorts - dress it up with a pashmina and a jewelled camisole or dress it down with a cotton blouse and sandals.   Right: A higher waistband camouflages tummy problems and balances out a fuller bottom. - Ian Allen Staff/Photographer