2. 1400 Joan of Arc was an early proponent of
pants for two reasons: Not only were they
comfortable enough for combat and horseback
riding (we don’t have to tell you that), but via
an elaborate hook-and-eye system she was
able to attach them to her tunic, thereby
creating a fairly impenetrable setup
3. 1701
Trousers became de rigueur, literally, as Czar
Peter the Great passed a law requiring all
Russians to wear them (farmers and
clergypeople were the only exceptions).
4. 1790s
During the French Revolution, the radical
working-class faction, who wore regular
trousers, became known as les sans-culottes to
differentiate themselves from the more
moderate, bougie revolutionaries who favored
fancy culottes (a.k.a. silk breeches). In the
end, the serious radicals were suppressed or
executed and, the phrase, like so many
unwitting phrases, became co-opted by a
Brooklyn indie band
5. 1851
Well-known suffragist Elizabeth Cady
Stanton’s cousin Elizabeth Smith Miller
created a set of so-called “Turkish trousers”
that strongly resemble modern-day culottes.
Stanton’s friend and fellow agitator Amelia
Bloomer took a shine to the style, and soon
enough, the trousers became known as
bloomers (“Millers” just weren’t as catchy).
6. 1873
Levi Strauss introduced jeans, in the form of
denim overalls. Not until the 1950s were they
sold outside the Western states and morphed
from workwear into rebelwear, slightly
naughty wear, and, later still, classics.
7. 1911
Boundary-pushing designer Paul Poiret
presented a Ballets Russes–inspired
collection, which prominently featured harem
pants. His fashion-plate wife and muse,
Denise Poiret, who was one of the look’s
biggest proponents, wore the look to a Poiret-
sponsored party called the Thousand and
Second Night.
8. 1920
T.S. Eliot’s fusty hero J. Alfred Prufrock
declares, “I shall wear the bottoms of my
trousers rolled,” setting the preppy style
standard for decades to come.
9. 1930s
Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo became
known for their love of pants: Dietrich notably
wore a tuxedo to the premiere of The Sign of
the Cross in 1932, while Garbo favored
Givenchy suits. One dissenter, starlet Kay
Francis, told the press, “Let the others go
mannish – I’m staying with feminine!” And
that, everyone, explains why there are no style
blogs devoted to Kay Francis.
10. 1940s
Stars like Katharine Hepburn and Lauren
Bacall followed their predecessors’ lead,
popularizing high-waisted trousers. As
reported in the book Katharine Hepburn:
Rebel Chic, the star would later tell Calvin
Klein, “I realized long ago that skirts are
hopeless. Anytime I hear a man say he prefers
a woman in a skirt, I say, ‘Try [wearing] one.
Try a skirt.’” When, in a 1981 interview,
Barbara Walters pressed her on the question,
Hepburn admitted she owned one skirt. “I’ll
wear it to your funeral,” she told Walters.
11. 1948
Munich-based fashion designer Sonja de
Lennart designed the first pair of Capri pants,
which soon become popular among
vacationing stars like Audrey Hepburn and
Anita Ekberg.
12. 1962
Jeanne Moreau disguised herself as the
world’s most gorgeous boy, wearing trousers
and a newsboy hat, for a throuple date in Jules
et Jim
13. 1969
Illinois congresswoman Charlotte Reid
became the first woman to wear trousers in
Congress (bell-bottoms, no less!). She told
the Washington Post, “Gerald Ford told me
he thought it was great, and I should do it
more often.”
14. 1969
Barbra Streisand turned heads when she wore
sequined, transparent Arnold Scaasi
pants to accept her Academy Award for
Funny Girl. The look was widely panned, but
it helped put Scaasi on the map.
15. 1977
Diane Keaton’s affinity for menswear-style
dressing, down to baggy trousers, inspired her
title character’s wardrobe in Annie Hall. “I
don't feel comfortable in a skirt,” the star once
told People.
16. 1980S
MC Hammer pioneered the brightly colored,
ankle-cinched, drop-crotch modification on
harem pants that would eventually bear
his name. Even with all his money problems,
he will always have that.
17. 1981
Run-DMC pioneered Adidas track pants as a
style statement, paving the single-striped road
for Missy Elliott, Gwen Stefani, and
Madonna.
18. 1980
"Do you know what comes between me and
my Calvins? Nothing,” a 15-year-old
Brooke Shields cooed to the camera.
Ushering in the era of designer jeans, the
commercial became one of the most talked-
about of all time
19. 1988
Loose-fitting, riotously printed Zubaz pants,
originally intended to be worn for
weightlifting, quickly became popular outside
the gym under the tagline “Dare to be
different.” Soon mallgoers everywhere were
accepting the challenge.
20. 1990S
Two diametrically opposed styles of pants
ruled this decade: tame, casual Friday
Dockers and ultrawide JNCOs favored by
ravers and hip-hop fans. The former were
designed to offend no one; the latter, to
accommodate a can of spray paint in the back
pocket.
21. 1993
Thirty-four years after Congress was
introduced to the shocking sight of a lady in
trousers, senators Barbara Mikulski and Carol
Moseley Braun protested the long-
standing no-trousers-for-women rule by
wearing them onto the Senate floor. The
Senate budged, allowing female se
22. 1995
Alexander McQueen debuted shockingly
low-rise “bumster” pants at his
“Highland Rape” show. The designer told
the Guardian, "It wasn't about showing the
bum... To me, that part of the body – not so
much the buttocks, but the bottom of the
spine – that’s the most erotic part
23. 2000
Karl Lagerfeld went on an extreme diet to fit
into Hedi Slimane’s super-slim Dior
Homme pants. For an as-told-to in the
Telegraph, he recounts: “I suddenly wanted
to wear clothes designed by Hedi
Slimane...But these fashions, modelled by
very, very slim boys, required me t
24. 2000
Call them the slightly more-socially-
acceptable cousin of the bumster. According to
a 2000 article in this magazine, the new
jeans du jour "boast a three-inch zipper and a
celebrity following that includes Charlize
Theron and Sarah Michelle Gellar. (Intermix
can't keep the $104 trousers in stock.)" Extre
25. 2008
Speaking at the DNC, Hillary Clinton thanked
her “sisterhood of the traveling
pantsuits.” It’s a riff on a joke she’s made
countless times, it turns out.
26. 2009
Jessica Simpson performed in high-waisted
mom jeans at a chili cook-off, prompting
thousands to rise up and declare the pants
unflattering. Even President Obama noted in a
TV interview that Simpson “is in a weight
battle, apparently." Having the leader of
the free world critique your fashio
27. 2009
Jeggings, the portmanteau that took the
denim world by storm, first appeared,
trademarked by Sanko Tekstil, a Turkish
company. Shortly afterward, accepting a
challenge from Tim Gunn, Conan O'Brien
sported them on his show. "I'm never
taking them off. You can pry them
