Pants have a long history, with origins in 17th-century Italian theater. During the French Revolution, trousers became a symbol of brotherhood, and ankle-length pants were popularized in Georgian England. Women began wearing dress pants in Napoleonic France, and bloomers were invented in the mid-19th century as practical gardening attire and later championed by women’s rights activists.
Pants are knee-length, calf-length, or ankle-length loose-fitting pants that can be worn by both men and women. The word pantaloon comes from the Italian word pantalone, which in turn is derived from a character in a 17th-century comedy. The character in the play, Pantaleone, was shown wearing these pants, and was probably the first person to wear them in public.
During the French Revolution, the revolutionaries scorned the fashionable breeches in favor of trousers. The breeches symbolized the expelled kings and aristocrats. The pants, on the other hand, seemed to have a more brotherly character.
In Georgian England, the top trendsetter of the ton, Beau Brummel, embraced ankle-length pants for reasons more fastidious than fashionable. He liked to present a neat and clean appearance, and his pants had foot straps to keep them straight and wrinkle-free. This trouser fashion was, of course, the forerunner of modern trousers.
Women donned dress pants in Napoleonic France. Knee- and ankle-length versions were worn as undergarments under lightweight empire-waisted muslin gowns. White or skin-colored girls’ pants were also in style at this time.
Bloomers, also known as floral pants, made their appearance in the mid-19th century in the United States. Designed by women’s rights activist Elizabeth Smith Miller as practical gardening attire, the pant pattern resembled harem pants and was worn under a short skirt or dress. The clothing was certainly more comfortable and sensible than what most Western women wore at the time: rigid corsets and long, full skirts that needed six or more petticoats underneath. Mrs. Miller’s fashion was first adopted by her cousin Elizabeth Cady Stanton and later by Mrs. Stanton’s friend Amelia Bloomer.
The outfit ended up being named after Mrs. Bloomer when she published it in her feminist magazine The Lily, urging women to wear trousers instead of cumbersome petticoats. Since such forked garments were considered men’s territory at the time, there was much controversy over the matter, with women who wore them having to face considerable ridicule and belittling. The trouser fashion was championed primarily by activists interested in women’s rights and women’s dress reform, and did not catch on with the general public. Mrs. Bloomer herself eventually abandoned it in favor of the crinoline cage, but the trouser became acceptable as a women’s cycling outfit in the closing years of the 19th century.
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