@Erik's answer didn't fly for me.
Following did:
@Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.ShortName, new { data_val_required = "You need me" })
plus doing this manually under field I had to add error message container
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.ShortName, null, new { @class = "field-validation-error", data_valmsg_for = "ShortName" })
Hope this saves you some time.