Trousers

Did we get our trousers from the Middle Ages?

Not directly.

In the Middle Ages, like 14th / 15th C., you tended to wear, from waist to feet:

• a kind of very baggy short not worn openly uncovered except by peasants when it was hot;
• a kind of long stockings reaching from attachment to this short down to feet;
• if it did not cover the feet as a stocking, then an extra sock, perhaps (also not worn openly);
• shoes (sometimes very funny ones, I'd not like to wear) hiding the possible extra sock and opening only where stocking was visible.

Similarily, the very baggy short would be hidden by the outer garment reaching to the knees.

In the Renaissance, the very baggy short would not be hidden, but elaborated - perhaps bags reaching all the way down to the knees, perhaps still a short baggy short, either way a lot of ribbons across the bulges.

However, how did the bulges stay bulgy?

I mean, things seem drawn in below something which bulges over the top of what is drawn in ... wouldn't all fall down? No, not if both upper and lower parts are sewn at points (one per ribbon, for instance) to a string inside, and then the strings are approached and united together by makramé.

The drawback is, between the strings and the cloth, there is a place where you can misplace your toes.

And one way of getting beyond this is putting a straight cloth inside the united strings.

And I guess, from this straight cloth, but without the bulges over, you get the modern trousers (via Rhinegraves), or rather, you get breeches, which end at the knee. You still have a length of stocking or socks down to the shoes from there, to the French Revolution, when the sansculottes are so called for not wearing breeches, and Napoleonic Wars, when modern long trousers spread to the rest of Europe (imitating victors).

How come I thought of this topic? Well, I am now wearing Renaissance breeches (at least they approach that at lower part, upper part being jeans shorts) which I made bulgy myself, using the technique I outlined.

Someone told me, if I do this kind of thing, without being rich, I risk being regarded as a fool ... but look here, Arabic Muslims (and some Western converts) are wearing Djellaba, someone told me, also, if you wear Djellaba, you are either rich or regarded as a fool. However, I checked outside Al-Ahzhar bookshop, where the proprietor was hanging out Djellabas or Tchadors "quelqu'un m'a dit, on porte Djellaba en France, on est riche ou un fou - est-ce que votre clientèle sont tous riches?" - "non, n'importe qui peut porter la Djellaba" (someone told me, you wear Djellaba in France, you are rich or a fool - are your clients rich? - no, anyone can wear the Djellaba).

Well, if Muslims can wear historic Muslim attire, why can't I wear (approaching) historic Christian one?

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris XI
Octave of St Laurence
17.VIII.2018