Hello,
Last Sunday, a friend came to a Steampunk St. Patty's Day party
sporting knickers. I am in the habit of calling them knee-breeches from my Rev
War days.
Is knickers the correct term for men's knee breeches in Victorian
times?
Henry Osier
I thought knickers referred to underwear.
Julie
Last Sunday, a friend came to a Steampunk St. Patty's Day party
sporting knickers. I am in the habit of calling them knee-breeches from my
Rev
War days.
Is knickers the correct term for men's knee breeches in Victorian
times?
Knickers are short for knickerbockers, from some deep recess of my memory.
I know they weren't called knee-breeches during Victorian times (except
maybe by old ladies) but I can't verify they were called knickers.
My theory is that the ladies' underwear term, knickers, came from the name
of the
In the '80s people called pants that ended just below the knee knickers.
Before that, they were peddle pushers. And I think there's at least one
other name for them. Knee highs, maybe? It seems every time they come
back into fashion, they are called something else.
Maybe the term breeches is
Ah the wonderful vagaries of fashion terms. Here's what I believe the
evolution is:
18th and early 19th century: the general term for pants that end at the
knee is knee breeches--or just plain breeches (let's not go back to
Elizabethan trunk hose, etc. now!)
1809: Washington Irving
On 3/20/13 4:05 PM, Hope Greenberg wrote:
And when do baseball uniforms move to shorter baggy pants that are
called knickerbockers...hmmm...
Ah-ha - here's one lead:
http://exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/timeline_1868.htm
- Hope
Oh heck, as long as I'm in there, here's the OED entry for breeches:
c. Now always in pl. breeches /?br?t??z/ , or a pair of breeches(perh.
not so used before 15th c.). /Breeches/ are distinguished from
/trousers/ by coming only just below the knee, but dialectally (and
humorously)
Modernly, you are correct. My grandmother was fond of asking if I'd
gotten my knickers in a twist if I was angry about something. This
often happened if I was being sent to my room for beating up a younger
sibling.
--cin
Cynthia Barnes
cinbar...@gmail.com
On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 11:38 AM,
On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 12:16 PM, Sybella mae...@gmail.com wrote:
In the '80s people called pants that ended just below the knee knickers.
Assuming you mean 1980s: I recall Capri pants for women,not knickers.
Before that, they were peddle pushers. And I think there's at least one
other name
There was a short fad for knickers in the mid to late 1970s for women.
Gauchos were another one, loose pants that ended below the knee - sort of
like a split skirt.
For both, you might wear them with a blouse and matching vest.
Culottes were a skirt/shorts combo, just above the knee. They might
Certainly breeches is the correct term for the garments worn as part
of British court dress during the Victorian era. I'm not sure what
the lower garment of a Norfolk suit is called, though. A random
advertisement from 1905 refers to hunting breeches, but that's all a
quick search turned up.
--
Yes, I did mean the 1980s and capri is another one, Cynthia! And Carol
may be right, where my memories blended '70s with the '80s...but I do
distinctly remember asking Mom to take me shopping for a pair of knickers,
pants that came to a gather just below the knee, during my childhood.
Honestly,
Bella - I won't tell if you won't tell that I actually had a pattern
very similar to this one. Like so many other fashionable items that I
thought would put me in the cool kid category, I didn't actually ever
make them...
http://momspatterns.com/inc/sdetail/95681
- Hope
On 3/20/13 5:11
The only contribution I can make is that in Arthur Ransome's Swallows
and Amazons books, written and set in the 1930s, a small boy (Roger) is
described as wearing knickerbockers.
Emily
On 3/20/2013 3:05 PM, Hope Greenberg wrote:
Ah the wonderful vagaries of fashion terms. Here's what I
Another name, at least in southeast Virginia, was 'clam diggers'.
Kate Pinner
Costume Scenic Design
Tech. Coord., Kelsey Theatre, MCCC
609-570-3584
pinn...@mccc.edu
Subject: Re: [h-cost] Terms for pants
Bella - I won't tell if you won't tell that I actually had a pattern
very similar to
LOL! I'm laughing my butt off over here.
Hope, thanks for trying but you can't pull the embarrassment card unless
you wore them! You have spared yourself a lifetime of shame by not using
that pattern! :)
Clam diggers Great one!!! I'm surprised I forgot that one. It and peddle
pushers are my
I don't know... When i was five and six I had peddle pushers and felt
pretty cute in the - in the late 1950s. Alas, no bike with which to push
peddles.
I love words and this has been a really interesting topic!
LynnD
On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 2:51 PM, Sybella mae...@gmail.com wrote:
LOL! I'm
Ah, I remember my New Romantic days, those wonderful black velvet
knickerbockers and frilly white blouse! But in the UK, certainly
modernly, it's always knickerbockers. Knickers are female underwear,
only. The idea of (male) baseball players routinely wearing knickers is
hilarious!
Jean
Hey, be loud and proud about your sartorial choices. I had two pairs of
knickers I got in my last year or two of high school--'81 or '82--the kind
with the band just below the knee. One pair was a tasteful tweed. The
other was lilac corduroy that I wore with cream colored socks and lavender
Tongue stuck firmly in cheek:
It never changes. Some guy (Charles Worth, for example) decides we all need
to wear hoop skirts (for example) and we all follow along. I bet it's been
going on since Mankind first started wearing clothes. And I don't mean only
women who follow fashion slavishly; men
I wore gauchos for my modeling portfolio in 1977 and my husband bought me a red
corduroy knicker jumpsuit in 1982. Still have both of them.
Penny Ladnier
The Costume Gallery Websites
Www.costumegallery.com
From my Android phone on T-Mobile. The first nationwide 4G network.
Original
in the 1980s I had green velvet knee breeches/knickers a la Princess
Diana, and several pairs of (vintage, 20s or 30s) natural linen jodhpurs
a la Ralph Lauren. I just thought I'd throw in a mention of the
jodhpurs, because both styles looked great on me. I enjoy following
fashion trends I
I look absolutely horrible in both jumpsuits and farmer-style overalls,
so have never worn either style. Pity, because farmer overalls can be
cute, though I've never liked jumpsuits.
Fran
Books on making historic clothing
www.lavoltapress.com
On 3/20/2013 4:24 PM, costumegal66 wrote:
I wore
Hey, be loud and proud about your sartorial choices. Terry
** definitely G
Tongue stuck firmly in cheek:
It never changes. Some guy (Charles Worth, for example) decides we all need
to wear hoop skirts (for example) and we all follow along. I bet it's been
going on since Mankind first
On 3/20/2013 5:34 PM, Jean Waddie wrote:
But in the UK, certainly modernly,
it's always knickerbockers. Knickers are female underwear, only.
One of my favorite speakers on costume history once began a lecture at an
international conference by saying, I considered giving this presentation
*giggle* Oh, yeah, I remember that, again, it was my mother's era to
say *snigger* clam-diggers. I never did. I was too sophisticate a
teenager in the 70s for that sort of thing. (Yeah, we're from
Virginia, too, tho the Northern part.)
--cin
Cynthia Barnes
cinbar...@gmail.com
On Wed, Mar 20,
We recently moved back to the US after living in the UK for five years. While
there, I never got used to the word pants meaning underwear. It was very
embarrassing when we went into a Starbucks out of a downpour where the water
had come up to my ankles. I turned with disgust to my husband and
*giggle*
My husband had a similar issue with an English loan-word in Toyko. In
Japan, many items, not just clothing, of Western origin have
Japanese-ified names. For example, aparto is apartment, and
co-hee is coffee. My spouse asked the concierge at one hotel desk
if they could have his pant-su
28 matches
Mail list logo
