Great Moments in Pants: A Handy Trouser Timeline
Photo: Globe Photos/Globe Photos
The world’s oldest pair of pants were recently discovered in China: They’re more than 3,000 years old and, to be honest, kind of unflattering. Ever since mankind first fell in love with pants three millennia ago, people have been making statements with them, legislating who can wear them, and, of course, doing weird things with the pockets. Click through our slideshow for a look back at some highs and lows in the history of pants.
1400s Joan of Arc was an early proponent of pants for two reasons: Not only were they comfortable enough for combat and horseback riding (we don’...
1400s Joan of Arc was an early proponent of pants for two reasons: Not only were they comfortable enough for combat and horseback riding (we don’t have to tell you that), but via an elaborate hook-and-eye system she was able to attach them to her tunic, thereby creating a fairly impenetrable setup that prevented her from being groped by soldiers. However, her appropriation of a traditionally male garment drew the ire of religious leaders and was one of the reasons given for her eventual execution at the stake.
1701 Trousers became de rigueur, literally, as Czar Peter the Great passed a law requiring all Russians to wear them (farmers and clergypeop...
1701 Trousers became de rigueur, literally, as Czar Peter the Great passed a law requiring all Russians to wear them (farmers and clergypeople were the only exceptions).
1790s During the French Revolution, the radical working-class faction, who wore regular trousers, became known as les sans-culottes to differenti...
1790s During the French Revolution, the radical working-class faction, who wore regular trousers, became known as les sans-culottes to differentiate themselves from the more moderate, bougie revolutionaries who favored fancy culottes (a.k.a. silk breeches). In the end, the serious radicals were suppressed or executed and, the phrase, like so many unwitting phrases, became co-opted by a Brooklyn indie band.
Photo: Fine Art Images / Heritage Images
1851 Well-known suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s cousin Elizabeth Smith Miller created a set of so-called “Turkish trousers” that strongly res...
1851 Well-known suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s cousin Elizabeth Smith Miller created a set of so-called “Turkish trousers” that strongly resemble modern-day culottes. Stanton’s friend and fellow agitator Amelia Bloomer took a shine to the style, and soon enough, the trousers became known as bloomers (“Millers” just weren’t as catchy).
Photo: Ann Ronan Picture Library / Heritage Images
1873 Levi Strauss introduced jeans, in the form of denim overalls. Not until the 1950s were they sold outside the Western states and morphed from...
1873 Levi Strauss introduced jeans, in the form of denim overalls. Not until the 1950s were they sold outside the Western states and morphed from workwear into rebelwear, slightly naughty wear, and, later still, classics.
Photo: 2010 Getty Images
1911 Boundary-pushing designer Paul Poiret presented a Ballets Russes–inspired collection, which prominently featured harem pants. His fashion-pl...
1911 Boundary-pushing designer Paul Poiret presented a Ballets Russes–inspired collection, which prominently featured harem pants. His fashion-plate wife and muse, Denise Poiret, who was one of the look’s biggest proponents, wore the look to a Poiret-sponsored party called the Thousand and Second Night.
Photo: ©APIC
1920 T.S. Eliot’s fusty hero J. Alfred Prufrock declares, “I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled,” setting the preppy style standard for...
1920 T.S. Eliot’s fusty hero J. Alfred Prufrock declares, “I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled,” setting the preppy style standard for decades to come.
Photo: Time & Life Pictures
1930s Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo became known for their love of pants: Dietrich notably wore a tuxedo to the premiere of The Sign of the Cr...
1930s Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo became known for their love of pants: Dietrich notably wore a tuxedo to the premiere of The Sign of the Cross in 1932, while Garbo favored Givenchy suits. One dissenter, starlet Kay Francis, told the press, “Let the others go mannish – I’m staying with feminine!” And that, everyone, explains why there are no style blogs devoted to Kay Francis.
Photo: 2006 Getty Images
1940s Stars like Katharine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall followed their predecessors’ lead, popularizing high-waisted trousers. As reported in the bo...
1940s Stars like Katharine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall followed their predecessors’ lead, popularizing high-waisted trousers. As reported in the book Katharine Hepburn: Rebel Chic, the star would later tell Calvin Klein, “I realized long ago that skirts are hopeless. Anytime I hear a man say he prefers a woman in a skirt, I say, ‘Try [wearing] one. Try a skirt.’” When, in a 1981 interview, Barbara Walters pressed her on the question, Hepburn admitted she owned one skirt. “I’ll wear it to your funeral,” she told Walters.
Photo: Time Life Pictures
1948 Munich-based fashion designer Sonja de Lennart designed the first pair of Capri pants, which soon become popular among vacationing stars lik...
1948 Munich-based fashion designer Sonja de Lennart designed the first pair of Capri pants, which soon become popular among vacationing stars like Audrey Hepburn and Anita Ekberg.
1962 Jeanne Moreau disguised herself as the world’s most gorgeous boy, wearing trousers and a newsboy hat, for a throuple date in Jules et Jim.
1969 Illinois congresswoman Charlotte Reid became the first woman to wear trousers in Congress (bell-bottoms, no less!). She told the Washington ...
1969 Illinois congresswoman Charlotte Reid became the first woman to wear trousers in Congress (bell-bottoms, no less!). She told the Washington Post, “Gerald Ford told me he thought it was great, and I should do it more often.”
Photo: The Washington Post
1969 Barbra Streisand turned heads when she wore sequined, transparent Arnold Scaasi pants to accept her Academy Award for Funny Girl. The look w...
1969 Barbra Streisand turned heads when she wore sequined, transparent Arnold Scaasi pants to accept her Academy Award for Funny Girl. The look was widely panned, but it helped put Scaasi on the map.
1977 Diane Keaton’s affinity for menswear-style dressing, down to baggy trousers, inspired her title character’s wardrobe in Annie Hall. “I don't...
1977 Diane Keaton’s affinity for menswear-style dressing, down to baggy trousers, inspired her title character’s wardrobe in Annie Hall. “I don't feel comfortable in a skirt,” the star once told People.
1980s MC Hammer pioneered the brightly colored, ankle-cinched, drop-crotch modification on harem pants that would eventually bear his name. Even ...
1980s MC Hammer pioneered the brightly colored, ankle-cinched, drop-crotch modification on harem pants that would eventually bear his name. Even with all his money problems, he will always have that.
Photo: 1990 Jim Steinfeldt
1981 Run-DMC pioneered Adidas track pants as a style statement, paving the single-striped road for Missy Elliott, Gwen Stefani, and Madonna.
Pho...
1981 Run-DMC pioneered Adidas track pants as a style statement, paving the single-striped road for Missy Elliott, Gwen Stefani, and Madonna.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
1980 "Do you know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing,” a 15-year-old Brooke Shields cooed to the camera. Ushering in the era of d...
1980 "Do you know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing,” a 15-year-old Brooke Shields cooed to the camera. Ushering in the era of designer jeans, the commercial became one of the most talked-about of all time.
Photo: Calvin Klein
1988 Loose-fitting, riotously printed Zubaz pants, originally intended to be worn for weightlifting, quickly became popular outside the gym under...
1988 Loose-fitting, riotously printed Zubaz pants, originally intended to be worn for weightlifting, quickly became popular outside the gym under the tagline “Dare to be different.” Soon mallgoers everywhere were accepting the challenge.
Photo: © NBC Universal, Inc.
1990s Two diametrically opposed styles of pants ruled this decade: tame, casual Friday Dockers and ultrawide JNCOs favored by ravers and hip-hop ...
1990s Two diametrically opposed styles of pants ruled this decade: tame, casual Friday Dockers and ultrawide JNCOs favored by ravers and hip-hop fans. The former were designed to offend no one; the latter, to accommodate a can of spray paint in the back pocket.
Photo: NFRANGA/Public Domain
1993 Thirty-four years after Congress was introduced to the shocking sight of a lady in trousers, senators Barbara Mikulski and Carol Moseley Bra...
1993 Thirty-four years after Congress was introduced to the shocking sight of a lady in trousers, senators Barbara Mikulski and Carol Moseley Braun protested the long-standing no-trousers-for-women rule by wearing them onto the Senate floor. The Senate budged, allowing female senators to wear pants so long as they are worn with a jacket.
Photo: 2003 Getty Images
1995 Alexander McQueen debuted shockingly low-rise “bumster” pants at his “Highland Rape” show. The designer told the Guardian, "It wasn't a...
1995 Alexander McQueen debuted shockingly low-rise “bumster” pants at his “Highland Rape” show. The designer told the Guardian, "It wasn't about showing the bum... To me, that part of the body – not so much the buttocks, but the bottom of the spine – that’s the most erotic part of anyone’s body, man or woman."
Photo: 2010 Catherine McGann
2000 Karl Lagerfeld went on an extreme diet to fit into Hedi Slimane’s super-slim Dior Homme pants. For an as-told-to in the Telegraph, he recoun...
2000 Karl Lagerfeld went on an extreme diet to fit into Hedi Slimane’s super-slim Dior Homme pants. For an as-told-to in the Telegraph, he recounts: “I suddenly wanted to wear clothes designed by Hedi Slimane...But these fashions, modelled by very, very slim boys, required me to lose at least six of my 16 stone [about 225 pounds].”
2000 Call them the slightly more-socially-acceptable cousin of the bumster. According to a 2000 article in this magazine, the new jeans du jour &...
2000 Call them the slightly more-socially-acceptable cousin of the bumster. According to a 2000 article in this magazine, the new jeans du jour "boast a three-inch zipper and a celebrity following that includes Charlize Theron and Sarah Michelle Gellar. (Intermix can't keep the $104 trousers in stock.)" Extreme lower-back exposure was a bona fide trend. According to Leeora Catalan, a thong designer (talk about a quintessential 2000 profession), "Like the neck, it's an erogenous zone, and people want to show it off."
Photo: Carlo Allegri/Getty Images
2008 Speaking at the DNC, Hillary Clinton thanked her “sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits.” It’s a riff on a joke she’s made countless t...
2008 Speaking at the DNC, Hillary Clinton thanked her “sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits.” It’s a riff on a joke she’s made countless times, it turns out.
2009 Jessica Simpson performed in high-waisted mom jeans at a chili cook-off, prompting thousands to rise up and declare the pants unflattering. ...
2009 Jessica Simpson performed in high-waisted mom jeans at a chili cook-off, prompting thousands to rise up and declare the pants unflattering. Even President Obama noted in a TV interview that Simpson “is in a weight battle, apparently." Having the leader of the free world critique your fashion mishap is pretty much the definition of rock bottom.
Photo: 2009 Logan Fazio
2009 Jeggings, the portmanteau that took the denim world by storm, first appeared, trademarked by Sanko Tekstil, a Turkish company. Shortly after...
2009 Jeggings, the portmanteau that took the denim world by storm, first appeared, trademarked by Sanko Tekstil, a Turkish company. Shortly afterward, accepting a challenge from Tim Gunn, Conan O'Brien sported them on his show. "I'm never taking them off. You can pry them from my cold, Irish legs," he tweeted later. In 2011, the term entered the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, along with "retweet" and "sexting."
Photo: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
2013 Lululemon's reputation as the upscale yoga-lady's brand of choice was sullied when it was discovered that its signature yoga pants were ...
2013 Lululemon's reputation as the upscale yoga-lady's brand of choice was sullied when it was discovered that its signature yoga pants were see-through. In the wake of the scandal, Lululemonheads everywhere spent even more time scrutinizing their rear ends, and chief product officer Sheree Waterson was jettisonsed. Well, it beats being burned at the stake.
Photo: 2013 Getty Images
1
/
27