Linda Thrift
Administrator
Center for Electronic Research and Outreach Services

When Gilbert Stuart painted George Washington in the famous "Lansdowne" portrait (after the Marquis of Lansdowne, to whom it was given), he depicted Washington in the appropriate dress for the first President of the new republic. His black velvet suit, black silk stockings, and black shoes with silver buckles expressed a simple, somber elegance, in stark contrast to the colorful rococo embroidered silks and fur-trimmed cloaks of European monarchs. Yet the basic fashion elements—the coat, waistcoat, and knee-breeches— were the same for kings and Presidents alike. Breeches, known as "small-clothes" in the late 1700s, had reigned, with slight variation, as proper men’s attire for two centuries. However, even as Washington sat for his portrait in 1796, a revolution in men’s fashion was under way in Europe, with versions of long pants appearing that would eventually replace breeches in men’s suit clothes.

Trousers were not new to the late eighteenth century. In fact, various forms of tailored pants were worn throughout Western history. Draped clothes, however, were the mark of civilization to the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans. Trousers were regarded as barbarian, and the Romans at one time decreed the death penalty for wearing them. Throughout the middle ages, men of the ruling classes generally adopted classically inspired robes, cloaks, and tunics, while many of their laboring subjects wore loose trousers. Knee-breeches eventually replaced the short doublet and hose of the Tudor period, and before long, most men had at least one pair of breeches for church and special occasions. Forms of trousers, however, were still worn by sailors, artisans, and field laborers. "A frock and trousers, spade and hoe, will do for my remaining days," wrote John Adams in 1774.

A number of influences converged in the transition from breeches to trousers. The Enlightenment teachings of John Locke and the tenets of Neoclassicism replaced rococo taste in the second half of the eighteenth century, making gaudy clothes inappropriate for serious men. The sobriety and simplicity of Protestantism influenced men’s dress, especially for the rising merchant and professional classes. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s romanticized emphasis on nature popularized hunting and sporting clothes for men and loose trousers for little boys. New fabrics, available through trade and industrialization, gave clothes more flexibility, and advances in the art of tailoring allowed for a better cut and more precise fit. Wool and broadcloth, which gave greater ease of movement, replaced heavy silk and velvet.

Politics and war also played a role in fashion trends. The baggy trousers of the French peasants, sans-culottes, were promoted during the French Revolution but soon gave way to a more elegant form of long pants called pantaloons. These were closefitting tights shaped to the leg and ending at or just above the ankles. Both the English and French military adopted these stretchable tight pants to wear tucked inside boots, and the American military followed suit in the first years of the nineteenth century.

From the 1790s to about 1815, pantaloons were the rage among the English dandies, led by George "Beau" Brummell, the arbiter of London fashion. The dandies’ clothes were plain and snug, restrained in color, and impeccably cut. Their style gave men’s costume a severity and simplicity still sought today.

Unlike pantaloons, trousers did not require a perfect body, but could still be tailored well enough to provide a classic line. Trousers of yellow nankeen (a type of cotton), cut to the ankles, became extremely popular daywear, but eventually dark trousers reaching to the shoe and held in place by instep straps became the mode. Ready-made suits appeared in the United States in the 1820s to meet the demands of the burgeoning middle class. By the time of the Marquis de Lafayette’s final American tour in 1824, trousers had generally replaced breeches except for very formal assemblies. Ary Scheffer’s famous portrait shows Lafayette in his dress of choice, including long trousers with instep straps.

As for the Presidents, political preferences may well have influenced their choice of pants. Republicans were often associated with pantaloons or trousers and Federalists with knee-breeches and buckled shoes. The Republican Thomas Jefferson reportedly wore trousers and adamantly refused to wear shoe buckles, replacing them with leather shoelaces instead. James Monroe, on the other hand, wore small-clothes until his death. Monroe’s wife enforced dress etiquette at presidential receptions, refusing admission to anyone not in breeches and silk hose.

Although the early Presidents may have worn the more modern pantaloons or trousers, they were not painted wearing them while in office. Even Jefferson was never painted in anything but breeches. Portraits of the early Presidents and the engravings from them, which were published for the general population, represented the presidency in the most proper attire for that high position. Republicans and Federalists were represented alike with minor differences ¯Monroe’s silver buckles for his breeches and shoes versus Jefferson’s plain breeches and leather shoelaces.

Andrew Jackson, who took office in 1829, was the first President to be portrayed in trousers while in office. As a military leader in the War of 1812, his uniform would have included pantaloons and Hessian boots. There is no known likeness of Jackson wearing breeches and no portrayal of a President in breeches since Jackson’s tenure. Breeches were eventually relegated to sportswear, developing into the knickerbockers of the 1870s. The trousers that developed in the early nineteenth century, with variations of fastenings, cuts, and fabrics, remain firmly entrenched in today’s fashion, some two centuries later.