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Trousers: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Trousers
The oldest known trousers, dating to the period between the thirteenth and the tenth centuries BC, were found at the Yanghai cemetery in Turpan, Xinjiang, in present-day western China. These garments were not merely decorative but were a functional engineering marvel designed for a specific purpose: horseback riding. Made of wool, the trousers featured straight legs and wide crotches, a design that allowed riders to move freely without chafing against the saddle. This archaeological find, preserved in the dry climate of the Tarim Basin, predates the written history of trousers by millennia, suggesting that the invention of this garment was driven by the needs of the nomadic peoples of Central Asia rather than the aesthetic sensibilities of settled civilizations. While figurative art from the Upper Paleolithic period in Siberia hints at leg coverings, the physical evidence of the Yanghai trousers provides the first concrete proof of a garment that covered the legs separately, a revolutionary departure from the robes, skirts, and kilts that had dominated human dress for thousands of years. The discovery of these ancient artifacts challenges the assumption that trousers were a late development in human history, placing their origins firmly in the Bronze Age and linking the evolution of clothing directly to the domestication of the horse.
Barbarians and Romans
Trousers entered recorded history in the sixth century BC, appearing on the rock carvings and artworks of Persepolis, but their adoption in the Mediterranean world was met with deep suspicion and ridicule. The ancient Greeks used the term anaxyrides for the trousers worn by Eastern nations and sarabara for the loose trousers worn by the Scythians, yet they did not wear trousers themselves, thinking them ridiculous. Euripides and Aristophanes used the word thulakoi, meaning sack, as a slang term for the loose trousers of Persians and other Middle Easterners, mocking the garment as a mark of barbarism. Republican Rome viewed the draped clothing of Greek and Minoan culture as an emblem of civilization and disdained trousers as the mark of barbarians, refusing to adopt them for centuries. However, as the Roman Empire expanded beyond the Mediterranean basin, the practical necessity of warmth and mobility led to their eventual adoption. Two types of trousers eventually saw widespread use in Rome: the feminalia, which fit snugly and usually fell to knee length or mid-calf length, and the braccae, loose-fitting trousers that were closed at the ankles. Both garments were adopted originally from the Celts of Europe, although later familiarity with the Persian Near East and the Germanic peoples increased acceptance. The transition from a symbol of uncivilized barbarism to a standard military garment illustrates how practical needs can eventually override cultural prejudice, transforming trousers from a foreign oddity into a staple of the Roman wardrobe.
Common questions
When and where were the oldest known trousers found?
The oldest known trousers were found at the Yanghai cemetery in Turpan, Xinjiang, in present-day western China. These garments date to the period between the thirteenth and the tenth centuries BC.
Why did ancient Greeks and Romans initially reject trousers?
Ancient Greeks and Romans viewed trousers as a mark of barbarism and ridiculed them as ridiculous garments. The Romans eventually adopted trousers like the feminalia and braccae from the Celts and Germanic peoples due to practical needs for warmth and mobility.
What was the significance of the sans-culottes during the French Revolution of 1789?
The sans-culottes, meaning without breeches, became a symbol of the common people rising against the aristocracy during the French Revolution of 1789. These citizens adopted ankle-length trousers to distinguish themselves from the aristocratic knee-breeches of the ancien regime.
Who were the pit-brow lasses and why did they wear trousers?
The pit-brow lasses were Wigan pit-brow women who worked at local coal mines in the mid-nineteenth century. They wore trousers under skirts to perform hard manual labor like sorting and shoveling coal without the hindrance of long skirts.
When was Denim Day established and what does it commemorate?
Denim Day is observed annually on the 22nd of April to commemorate the 1992 rape case in Rome where a victim was blamed for wearing tight jeans. The day serves as an international symbol of protest against victim-blaming and legal systems that failed to protect women.
When did Malawi and Sudan allow women to legally wear trousers?
Women in Malawi were not legally allowed to wear trousers under President Kamuzu Banda's rule until 1994, when the law introduced in 1965 was lifted. In Sudan, women have faced arrest and prosecution for wearing trousers under Article 152 of the 1991 Penal Code.
By the eighth century there is evidence of the wearing in Europe of two layers of trousers, especially among upper-class males, yet the evolution of men's fashion would take a bizarre turn in the fifteenth century. As hemlines rose and the padded under jacket known as the pourpoint came into view, the most revealing of these fashions were only ever adopted at court and not by the general population. These trousers, which we would today call tights but which were still called hose or sometimes joined hose at the time, emerged late in the fifteenth century and were conspicuous by their open crotch which was covered by an independently fastening front panel, the codpiece. The exposure of the hose to the waist was consistent with fifteenth-century trends, which also brought the pourpoint and the shirt, previously undergarments, into view. Charlemagne, who reigned from 742 to 814, is recorded to have habitually worn trousers, donning the Byzantine tunic only for ceremonial occasions, yet the influence of the Roman past and the example of Byzantium led to the increasing use of long tunics by men, hiding most of the trousers from view and eventually rendering them an undergarment for many. The codpiece, a garment that would become a subject of intense fashion commentary and satire, served as a functional and symbolic element of male dress until the rise of the trunk hose and the eventual separation of the legs into distinct breeches.
The Revolution of the Sans-Culottes
During the French Revolution of 1789 and following, many male citizens of France adopted a working-class costume including ankle-length trousers, or pantaloons, in place of the aristocratic knee-breeches. The new garment of the revolutionaries differed from that of the ancien regime upper classes in three ways: it was loose where the style for breeches had most recently been form-fitting, it was ankle length where breeches had generally been knee-length for more than two centuries, and they were open at the bottom while breeches were fastened. This shift in clothing was not merely aesthetic but deeply political, as the word sans-culottes, meaning without breeches, became a symbol of the common people rising against the aristocracy. The style was introduced by Beau Brummell in early nineteenth-century England and by mid-century had supplanted breeches as fashionable street-wear. At this point, even knee-length pants adopted the open bottoms of trousers and were worn by young boys, for sports, and in tropical climates. Breeches proper have survived into the twenty-first century as court dress, and also in baggy mid-calf versions known as plus-fours or knickers worn for active sports and by young schoolboys. The transformation of trousers from a hidden undergarment to a symbol of democratic revolution and modern masculinity marked a pivotal moment in the history of Western dress, establishing the trousers as the standard lower-body garment for adult males.
The Pit-Brow Lasses
Starting around the mid-nineteenth century, Wigan pit-brow women scandalized Victorian society by wearing trousers for their work at the local coal mines. They wore skirts over their trousers and rolled them up to their waists to keep them out of the way, yet their task of sorting and shovelling coal involved hard manual labour, so wearing the usual long skirts of the time would have greatly hindered their movements. These women, known as pit-brow lasses, worked above ground at the pit-head and challenged the rigid gender norms of the Victorian era by adopting a garment that was considered inappropriate for women. Their defiance of social convention was not an isolated incident but part of a broader movement of women entering the workforce and demanding practical clothing for their labor. The scandal caused by their attire highlighted the tension between the practical needs of working women and the restrictive expectations of society, setting the stage for future struggles over women's right to wear trousers. The pit-brow lasses were pioneers in the fight for gender equality in dress, proving that trousers were not merely a male garment but a necessary tool for women's economic independence and physical freedom.
The Flight of the First Lady
Pat Nixon was the first American First Lady to wear trousers in public, yet the journey of women's trousers from the margins of society to the center of fashion was a long and often contentious process. In 1919, Luisa Capetillo challenged mainstream society by becoming the first woman in Puerto Rico to wear trousers in public, and she was sent to jail for what was considered to be a crime, but the charges were later dropped. In the early twentieth century, women air pilots and other working women often wore trousers, and frequent photographs from the 1930s of actresses Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn in trousers helped make trousers acceptable for women. During World War II, women employed in factories or doing other men's work on war service wore trousers when the job demanded it, and in Britain during World War II the rationing of clothing prompted women to wear their husbands' civilian clothes, including trousers, to work while the men were serving in the armed forces. By the summer of 1944, it was reported that sales of women's trousers were five times more than the previous year. The post-war era saw trousers become acceptable casual wear for gardening, the beach, and other leisure pursuits, and in 1969, Rep. Charlotte Reid became the first woman to wear trousers in the US Congress. The acceptance of trousers for women was a slow but steady process, driven by the practical needs of war, the influence of fashion icons, and the relentless advocacy of women who refused to be confined by the restrictions of skirts and dresses.
The Denim Defense
In Rome in 1992, a 45-year-old driving instructor was accused of rape, and when he picked up an 18-year-old for her first driving lesson, he allegedly raped her for an hour, then told her that if she was to tell anyone he would kill her. Later that night she told her parents and her parents agreed to help her press charges. While the alleged rapist was convicted and sentenced, the Supreme Court of Cassation overturned the conviction in 1998 because the victim wore tight jeans. It was argued that she must have necessarily have had to help her attacker remove her jeans, thus making the act consensual. The court stated in its decision that it is a fact of common experience that it is nearly impossible to slip off tight jeans even partly without the active collaboration of the person who is wearing them. This ruling sparked widespread feminist protest, and the day after the decision, women in the Italian Parliament protested by wearing jeans and holding placards that read Jeans: An Alibi for Rape. As a sign of support, the California Senate and Assembly followed suit, and soon Patricia Giggans, executive director of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, made Denim Day an annual event. As of 2011 at least 20 U.S. states officially recognize Denim Day in April. Wearing jeans on this day, the 22nd of April, has become an international symbol of protest. In 2008 the Supreme Court of Cassation overturned the ruling, so there is no longer a denim defense to the charge of rape. The incident transformed a simple article of clothing into a powerful symbol of resistance against victim-blaming and the legal systems that had long failed to protect women.
The Global Struggle for Pants
In Malawi women were not legally allowed to wear trousers under President Kamuzu Banda's rule until 1994, and this law was introduced in 1965. In Sudan, Article 152 of the Memorandum to the 1991 Penal Code prohibits the wearing of obscene outfits in public, and this law has been used to arrest and prosecute women wearing trousers. Thirteen women including journalist Lubna al-Hussein were arrested in Khartoum in July 2009 for wearing trousers, and ten of the women pleaded guilty and were flogged with ten lashes and fined 250 Sudanese pounds apiece. Lubna al-Hussein considers herself a good Muslim and asserts that Islam does not say whether a woman can wear trousers or not, and she was eventually found guilty and fined the equivalent of $200 rather than being flogged. In 2013, Turkey's parliament ended a ban on women lawmakers wearing trousers in its assembly, and in 2013, an old bylaw requiring women in Paris, France to ask permission from city authorities before dressing as men, including wearing trousers, was declared officially revoked by France's Women's Rights Minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. The global struggle for the right to wear trousers has been a long and often dangerous fight, with women in many countries facing legal penalties, social ostracism, and physical violence for simply wearing a garment that has become standard for men. The history of trousers is not just a story of fashion and function but a testament to the resilience of women who have fought for their right to dress as they choose, challenging the patriarchal structures that have sought to control their bodies and their lives.