Women wearing pants, suits and cufflinks: A look back in history and today's trends

May 05, 2015Tracy Xavier

Let's start with a look back in time. (from Wikipedia) Since the adoption of trousers in Western Europe in Late Antiquity, trousers have been largely worn by men and not by women until the early 20th century. Amazon wearing trousers and carrying a shield with an attached patterned cloth and a quiver. Ancient Greek Attic white-ground alabastron, ca. 470 BC, British Museum, London. During World War I, women wore their husbands' (suitably altered) trousers while they took on jobs previously assigned to men, and increasingly wore trousers as leisurewear in the 1920s and 30s. And for a period in the 1970s, trousers became quite fashionable for women. In the United States, this may be due to the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which ruled that dresses could not be required of girls. Dress codes changed in public schools across the United States.

Oh yeah, I was caught up in the Title IX. Me and by "best friends" ALL decided to buck the system by wearing pants to school. The plan was set. I was going to wear a really cool pink and green pantsuit complete with a little vest with gold chains down the front. I bounced out of the house that morning feeling like a rock star. Low and behold, my "best friends" chickened out on me. So, off to the principal's office I went. The assistant principal got in her station wagon and drove me home so that I could change my outfit. I have to say I remember she had a look of " I have no choice" on her face, but nonetheless, this matter had to be taken care of. So I go in the house and mom quickly helped with my costume change. As I was heading out the front door, she said, " Honey I won't tell anybody okay?" What the heck was that all about? I need to drill down into who implemented that little regulation.....for another day.