Navy suit trousers don’t usually cause a stir, at least not in politics where they abound. Unless, that is, they hover two inches above the shoe, as Rishi Sunak’s did on a visit to a gas plant in Aberdeenshire on Monday. The prime minister might be wearing shorts in Disneyland right now, but images of his shrunken trousers flooded social media long before he boarded the plane, accompanied by armchair theories that it was surely a trick to make the 5ft 6ins PM appear taller.
Menswear critic Derek Guy disagreed. “Lots of conspiracy theories on why Sunak wears such short trousers … but my theory is simple … Sunak is a vaguely trend-aware guy, but just a little behind the times,” he wrote on Twitter, his preferred medium. “I don’t think he has a grand theory for how short sleeves and pants make him look taller”.
