The very first American presidents — George Washington included — led the country through the American Revolution and its earliest days without wearing pants. That’s because the Founding Fathers actually wore breeches, tight-fitting men’s bottoms that cut off at the knee. (Their calves were covered with knee-high stockings.) Breeches were a status symbol; full-length pantaloons were generally reserved for working folk who needed more ease to complete manual labor, which was difficult to do in custom-fitted breeches. The knee-length garments were also the pinnacle of men’s fashion because they were on trend in Europe; Americans generally kept up with overseas styles, in part because the colonies initially couldn’t mass-produce clothing. (For some time, textiles were the top import from England.)
Another revolution — in France — eventually led Americans to turn their backs on breeches around the start of the 19th century. French political groups such as the sans-culottes (literally meaning “without knee breeches”) stylized longer trousers as the apparel of the everyday man, disparaging breeches as the clothing of the wealthy elite. For a while, American presidents continued to stick with the cropped breeches, though pants slowly crept into everyday style. Americans wouldn’t see the country’s highest leader don full-length pants until 1825, when John Quincy Adams became the sixth president — and the first to be inaugurated while wearing a pair of trousers. (He also ditched the powdered wig.)
Media Release/Nicole Garner Meeker/Interesting Facts
