I remember a friend of mine moved from a university in Australia to one in California. And he went to work in dress shorts and received an unexpectedly large amount of derision. Dress shorts aren’t acceptable in the U.S.
Dress shorts are the way to go in Australia. Even bank managers wear them with ties.
I was shocked when I came to California from Australia in 1977 and found that it was often impermissible to wear shorts, even on the hottest of days. Long pants were required by many social situations.
In many ways, Australia is a less formal country than America.
Today it is close to 90 degrees in Pico-Robertson but you won’t find many Orthodox Jews walking around in shorts. Particularly not the women. The only Orthodox Jews who wear shorts in America are the modern Orthodox. It is a sure sign of limited Jewish religiosity.
I remember a story in Leon Wieseltier’s book Kaddish about a man coming to shul in the summer and asking whether or not to say a certain bracha (blessing).
He was told it was said with pants.
