WILLIAMSBURG — She may have been babysitting, but Pema Sherpa was also turning heads.
Was it her canary yellow bathing suit top? Or was it her her new summer infatuation, the neon high-waisted short shorts she was wearing in McCarren Park as she watched the child in her care?
"I got them in all the colors, electric blue, green, white and red," boasted Sherpa, wearing the red pair from Zara.
"I got them last year but I kind of hated them ... this summer, I'm loving them a lot more."
Sherpa said she's seen the style spring up more this year, echoing the observations of other young women across Williamsburg, Bushwick, and the rest of the city.
"High waisted shorts — for the brave, the hot, or the delusional," proclaimed one shorts connoisseur, Meghan Burns, 24, who was wearing a red hue with a black transparent top lined with fringe.
"Cooler than rebel nails," she added, referring to another summer trend — that of painting one fingernail a different color from the rest.
One Bushwick resident, Rachel Ohm, 24, said she got her first high-waisted shorts last year in denim, but that this season she felt emboldened to try prints.
"I have noticed them in more fun patterns and colors this year," said Ohm, who bought her latest Citizens of Humanity brand floral pair from the SoHo branch of the boutique Aritzia.
"They look pulled together with a tucked in shirt and you can pair them with almost any shoes," she said of high-waisted shorts.
Another pairing option is the crop top, one fashion blogger noted, recalling the trend's history in the 1960s and 1970s with fashion designer Mary Quant and then in the 1980s when Madonna rocked the garment.
And Christine Grisham, 26, inspired by the style blog Atlantic-Pacific, sought out her pink pair (which she also found at Zara).
"She posted a picture of herself in them," said Grisham of the blogger, "and I've been searching for them ever since."
