I wondered how long it would be before the youngsters here would question hotpants! The term dates back to the 1960s and 1970s. When Metro first used it here, I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. Like a blast from the past.
From Wikipedia:
Hot pants -
Categorized as "short shorts", they commonly have an inseam length of two inches or less. These are short, tight shorts, usually made of cotton, nylon, or some other common material. They are meant to emphasize the buttocks and the legs. Launched by fashion designer Mary Quant during the "Swinging London" scene of the mid 1960s,[5] hot pants were very popular up to the early 1970s. During this time the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team created a unit of usherettes called the Hot Pants Patrol, who wore all-in-one garments incorporating hot-pants.