short pants origins culotte courte








Short Pants/Trousers: Origins


Figure 1.--Many private Engish schools adopted short pants as a simple, practical garment for school uniforms. Mothers for the same reason sent boys to state schools in short pants.

Note: This is a prelimary page based on HBC's initial thoughts and reader input. We realize that many factors have not yet been included. In addition we have not seriously begun to assess the various factors. Please contribute whatever insights you might have. The new page on the origins of these suits has great potential. One odserver tells us that he believes the discussion has a lot to tell us about our culture and attitudes.

Short pants first appeared in England and Germany about the turn of the century. Soon they appeared in Europe and to a lesser extent America. At first shorts were mostly worn by little boys and were only slightly shorter than knee pants. One of the principal differences is that they were worn with kneesocks rather than long stockings. The first shorts even continued to have the buttons at the side that knee pants had. Even for knee pants these buttons were purely ornamental, a inheitance of the buttons used to close 18th Century knee breeches. The style was given great empetus, especially as a style suitable for older boys when developing British Boy Scout movement adopted them as standard wear. Earlier they had been adopted by the important Wandervogel movement in Germany. American Scouts, however, chose to mostly wear knickers. The question renmains, however, as to why short pants emerged as a popular boys fashion in the 20th century and why some boys came ot to like them.

Origins

While we have a good deal of information on when and where the various types of short pants (knnepants, knickers, and short pants) first appeared, we have less information as to why they appeared. Actually boys for many years in the late 18th and early 19th century wore longpants skeleton suits while men wore knee breaches. It is unclear why this convention changes, who was responsible and why. It may well be that the skeleton suit and tunic firmly established the convebntioin that boys should be dressed differently than men. Before the 1780s boys were dressed like their fathers, only in scaled down versions. THis changed with the skeleton suit. Thus as men began to adopt long trousers, in the 1820s mothers eventually began dressing their sons in shortened trousers, at firs bloomer knickers were the most common. You begin seeing these outfits in the 1840s, but theuy are more common in the 1850s. This was most common among affluent families, leading us to suspect that fashion dictates were very important. It may well be that at this stage the convention of shortened pants for boys was primarily one of differentiating boys stylistically from their fathers. We are not sure why this was so important or why it developed at this time. A HBC reader has commented on the American cultural trend. Similar trends were occuring in Europe. In fact at this time, the European fashions generally determined how fashionable Americans dressed. By the 1860s, kneepants were increasingly being woirn by American boys and by 1879s they were the conventional fashion. This included boys of all social backgrounds. At this stage practical concerns almost certainly were of importancre. A HBC reader writes, "I think children's play and the wear and tear of clothes must have been an important factor. Long trousers soon fry at the knees and there is nothing more uncomfortable that being dressed in patched clothes. Hense short troucers. One only got knees (or long stockings) dirty and these were easy to wash. Also large families would require alot of mending of clothes. I am amazred at the iron pile of folk with a couple of kids. So it must have been a mountain with five or more!" HBC agrees that this must have been a factor, especially considering the druggery and labor involved in laundering clothes before the invention of modern laundry detergents and household appliances.

Appearance

Short pants first appeared in England and Germany about the turn of the century. Soon they appeared in Europe and to a lesser extent America. At first shorts were mostly worn by little boys and were only slightly shorter than knee pants. One of the principal differences is that they were worn with kneesocks rather than long stockings. The first shorts even continued to have the buttons at the side that knee pants had. Even for knee pants these buttons were purely ornamental, a inheitance of the buttons used to close 18th Century knee breeches.

Reasons Short Pants Proved Popular

Short pants were widely adoprted fpr boys' werarvin Europe. Some of the reasons the style proved popular are obvious and relate to their practicality. Other reasons are not so obvious or perhaps not very important. Some of these factors relate to the boys' attitudes and some to the parents and concerning boys' clothes--this usually meant mother. The reader should note that HBC is listing here the factors which may have given rise to this new style for boys. The importance or even the overall impact of each of these factors is debateable. On factvsome of these factors are mutually exclusive, meaning that short pants like any fashion exist in a very complicated social structure and itvis often difficult to definitively assess just what caused a certain style to become popular and subsequently decline in poopularity. HBC would be interested in other factors that HBC readers may know as well as your insights as to just how important these factors were.

Reasons Boys Came to Object to Short Trousers

Short pants in many ways were ideal for children. They were a light comfortable garment, m suited for active play. Some boys, however, came to dislike short pants. This was especially true of American boys. HBC believes the dominate factor was that shorts became assiociate with boys wear or juvenile attire. In fact, a boy's transition to long pants became an important rite of passage. Boys however do not want to ve forced to wear anything that is associated with juvenile styles. They sdon't mind adopting their own styles, but boys especailly older bous donot want to be required to wear a style assiociated with lottle boys. This became an even stronger feeling when girls began wearing shorts.






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Created: October 11, 2000
Last updated: 1:26 PM 11/18/2005