Beware the underbutt! Hotpants get even hotter as Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and ...

Miley Cyrus and Tulisa Contostavlos have both flashed their underbutt Rihanna took things further with a pair of shorts that revealed nearly all Teeny shorts are a big trend this summer and are all over the High Street

By Ruth Styles

PUBLISHED: 07:32 EST, 16 July 2013 | UPDATED: 10:31 EST, 16 July 2013

From the tops of the thighs to the sides of the bosom, it seems there's very little flesh that celebrities are unwilling to flash.

Now the A-list have a new erogenous zone to show off thanks to summer's super-short shorts - the underbutt.

Among those with the nerve to show of a glimpse of buttock are Cara Delevingne, Tulisa Contostavlos and the usually demure Ellie Golding.

A perennial favourite, this season saw shorts climb higher up the leg than ever with designers sending a mixture of distressed Daisy Duke cutoffs and teeny tailored bottom skimmers down the summer catwalks.

The High Street has also gotten behind the trend with bottom-skimming shorts hitting the shelves at Topshop, while ASOS has made its Daisy Dukes tinier than ever.

American Apparel has also gotten in on the act with its teeny skin tight 'Disco Shorts' - yours for £50.

Others to adopt the tiny shorts trend include Rihanna who pushed the boundaries in a pair that were less sneak peek and more full moon, while Abbey Clancey was spotted in a pair of teeny shorts at a party in Milan.

Miley Cyrus, meanwhile, is a serial offender and has been pictured flashing her underbutt on numerous occasions.

While shorts have rarely hit the heights of the current crop, they've long caused raised eyebrows in polite society.

Although boys have been wearing shorts for centuries, it wasn't until 1890 that a culotte type garment was invented to enable women to take advantages of the newly invented bicycle.

Shorter shorts followed 40 years later, when tennis star Alice Marble shocked the world by turning up at a tennis match in a pair of loose A-line shorts that fell modestly to the knee.

But it wasn't long before starlets such as Betty Grable shrunk them down to current proportions, with Marylin Monroe photographed in a succession of teeny pairs during the 1950s.

The 60s and 70s saw shorts get even tinier as Catherine Bach made denim cutoffs famous in the TV series, Dukes of Hazzard.

Pamela Anderson revived the hotpant during the 90s thanks to her Baywatch character CJ's penchant for skimpy shorts.

Other famous bottoms to have been spotted in the skimpiest of short shorts include Kylie Minogue, whose gold hotpants worn in the video for 2000 single, Spinning Around, launched a thousand male fantasies, and the Duchess of Cambridge who was pictured in a yellow pair at a charity roller disco.