Magnum Mania!

Magnum is one cool character, but even the best make mistakes. The short shorts are notorious, of course, but a couple of other fashion choices struck me as odd. Wearing two collared shirts at once, often a polo under a field shirt for one. For another, tucking in Polo and Aloha shirts. What is that about?

Anyone notice other dubious sartorial selections by the super sleuth?

Men wore shorter shorts back then than they do now. They also tucked shirts in. I don't recall him wearing two collared shirts, what ep was that?

Oops! Does this mean I shouldn't be tucking my aloha shirts in? Just kidding. Different era, I think it was probably more accepted back then. And I still do it but I am old!

People always mention the short shorts. I don't know what the problem is. I wore short shorts back then and still do whenever I wear shorts. I think they look much better than the modern long knee-shorts that make men look like stunted gorillas.

What I don't like are Magnum's pleated shorts. Why pleats? Magnum was quite fit, but pleats make even a fit guy look like a fat-ass. The collar-less shirts and thin "wind breakers" that he started wearing in later seasons were pretty lousy too.

The two collared shirts look was for concealed carry in the small of his back. It was also a bad fashion look during the 80’s. The tucked in Aloha shirt I never understood, but everyone tucked in their polo shirts back then. It was before the fattening of America. Why do you think the Tony Soprano athleisure look is so popular? The short shorts were the times. Even Jack Tripper sported them. I wear Tommy Bahama 6” inseam shorts now. I’m 6ft with a 36” waistline. They stop about 2” or 3” above my knees. They feel comfortable and look good. I have not until now, nor will I ever, take my fashion cues from thugs and convicts.

K Hale wrote: I don't recall him wearing two collared shirts, what ep was that?

The pilot episode at the airport near the end.

Even as a kid, I thought it was odd that TM wore his Aloha shirt tucked in, and believe me, I was no fashion expert at age ten (or now)!

I hated the short shorts, because they were uncomfortable and they would, how can I say it...betray you...at every possible moment!

TC wearing (rainbow) suspenders AND a belt. At least he didn't wear the suspenders dangling down, like some people did (briefly) in the mid-to-late '80s.

Did TC ever wear an Aloha shirt? It's odd that he didn't.

Wearing the shirts with seemingly all but the last button undone is another fashion faux pas of the 1980s. In fact, it seems that all the decades in which the Baby Boomers were young (late 1960s through early 1990s) had mostly hideous fashion trends; Boomers are truly the worst-dressed and most poorly styled generation of all time!

"Never Again...Never Again", indeed.

Chronosport wrote:Wearing two collared shirts at once, often a polo under a field shirt for one.

You mean like this?


I don't think it was a deliberate fashion choice, but that it got a bit chilly at night and he just threw whatever shirt he had over top to keep warm. I've done that.

I'm much more disturbed by something like this:



Or this:

I don't know how Magnum could look any wimpier.

Fr. Paddy McGuinness wrote:The two collared shirts look was for concealed carry in the small of his back. It was also a bad fashion look during the 80’s. The tucked in Aloha shirt I never understood, but everyone tucked in their polo shirts back then. It was before the fattening of America. Why do you think the Tony Soprano athleisure look is so popular? The short shorts were the times. Even Jack Tripper sported them. I wear Tommy Bahama 6” inseam shorts now. I’m 6ft with a 36” waistline. They stop about 2” or 3” above my knees. They feel comfortable and look good. I have not until now, nor will I ever, take my fashion cues from thugs and convicts.

Hear! Hear!

In the summer I like shorts, not half pants.

Hey now, nothing wrong with Bermuda length...

Who’s Magim?

There is no way I would go back to wearing the short shorts of the 1980s but I still tuck my shirttail in.

Fr. Paddy McGuinness wrote:Who’s Magim?

I think it's Magnum's midget half-brother. Apparently he made some fashion faux pas too.

KingKC wrote:There is no way I would go back to wearing the short shorts of the 1980s but I still tuck my shirttail in.

In the only remaining picture of me on the internet, I'm wearing short shorts - with shirttail out.

In the 80s, nobody thought Magnum's shorts were too short. Somewhere along the way, the fashionistas decided that guys can't show their thighs. Today's shorts that extend below the knee are ugly, but I don't think I want a return to the short shorts either. The worst fashion on the show was in the last season when TM was wearing clothes that were a couple sizes too big, but everybody was dressing that way in the real world in the late 80s. Truth is, it was hard for TM to look bad in anything.

Hey, Tom Selleck himself has often joked about the very short shorts. See here, for example:

http://extratv.com/videos/0-a69ojhj0/

I just mentioned them because everyone does. Sean Connery wore very short swimming trunks in Dr. No, as I recall, and for some reason doesn’t get the same grief for it.

Regardless, there are other odd wardrobe choices that I was mainly thinking of, like the two collars and the tucked in aloha shirts and, now that I’m thinking of it, the oddly mismatched camo shorts with various tops and, in later seasons, the beige on beige.

Regardless, I kind of think this was at least partly intentional. Magnum was not supposed to be some overrefined fashionista, like Pierce Brosnan’s 007, but rather a regular cool guy who didn’t care much about fashion—one who wore what he liked and what was comfortable.