How can I get 'git status' to always use short format?

I'd like git status to always use the short format:

$ git status --short
 M file1
 M dir/file2
?? file_untracked3
?? dir/file_untracked4

There doesn't seem to exist a configuration option for this, and git config --global alias.status "status --short" does not work. I haven't managed to create an alias in zsh either.

How can I make git status to use the short format by default?