Candace Perry wrote [snip] >My colleague seems to think they could not have worn breeches, as their >English counterparts might have here in the colonies. To him it seems far >too formal for a farmer to be wearing breeches, but frankly I don't know >otherwise. We have no artifact record to turn to, unfortunately, except for >that of a more formal nature. It has been long accepted that the costume of >the local rural German speaking man in the late 18th century would have >included breeches, but my colleague questions this, and I can see his point. >Was there some sort of loose fitting pants with pockets the average working >German Joe would have worn? We're not talking "peasant" but more of a small >landowning farmer or craftsman. Not an impoverished type by any means.
Breeches were formal dress in the late 18th/early 19th century, when working men had begun to wear trousers. However, you asked about the 17th to mid-18th centuries; knee-breeches were standard masculine wear in those periods. At least in the 17th century, there were various styles but all were fairly loose-fitting, not like the elegant garment of the 1780s/90s. I don't know about Germany specifically, but this is true for Britain/Western Europe generally. _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
