Underwear. Knickers. Pants. Undies. Call them what you will,
they’ve been around for a long time. To celebrate the countdown to Pants in the Park, we’ve delved into the top drawer of undergarments to bring you a brief
history (sorry) of pants.
To witness the birthplace of the first pair of pants, our
journey begins in the Stone Age. Tired of feeling the effects of a cool breeze,
Stone Age men and women took to wrapping animal skins around their loins to
keep warm and to have something to hang in their wardrobe. The path to Mary
Portas had begun.
Nice pants Thak! |
It took the Romans (no surprise there) to take pants design
to the next stage. Ancient Romans (this refers to the time period and is not us
being ageist) created a leather undergarment called a subligaculum, which could
be either a pair of shorts or a cloth wrapped around the lower body. Men and
women both wore subligacula, with women also wearing a strophium – a leather
band worn across the chest. The first billboard advert for strophium – ‘Hello
Gladiators’ – was quite controversial and lasted only a few days before being taken down as it was causing too many chariot
crashes.
4th Century AD mosaic found near the ancient Roman Villa del Casale in Sicily, M Disdero 2006 |
Fast forward to the Middle Ages and underwear had taken a
bit of a backseat. Men were sporting the latest in undergarment design called a
braise, which was the 6th Century equivalent of a pair of M&S
spotted boxer shorts. Women on the other hand had eschewed the notion of pants
completely, and wore nothing but a long linen garment called a shift under
their dress. In fact it wasn’t until the 19th Century that women
started wearing pants again!
From the 19th Century, pants started to take
shape as we know them today, although there were a few wacky designs along the
way: long pants, short pants and event pants that came in two parts (hence the
fact that pants are pairs).
The name pants came from the shortening of pantaloons, a
type of baggy underwear that went from your waist all the way down to your
ankles. Pantaloons were named after a fictitious character in a number of
Italian plays from the 16th Century called Pantalone. Pantalone was
famous for wearing garments that went down all the way to his ankles (like
tights). At the time, most men wore
garments that stopped at the knee, so Pantalone stuck out like a sore thumb.
Pantalone was forever associated with this particular attire, so when people
started wearing long underwear, they called them pantaloons (a dubious honour
in our book only matched by Mr Thomas Crapper).
Pantalone wearing his dashing pantaloons (not arriving in a shop near you any time soon) |
Whatever pants you decide to wear outside your clothes at
Pants in the Park, we look forward to seeing you there. It’s going to be
bloomin’ marvellous!
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