Trousers have featured prominently in the male wardrobe for about 200 years. These bifurcated garments originated in the 18th century as comfortable, practical garments for working men, being adopted by some labourers, soldiers and especially sailors, whose wide ankle-length ‘trowsers’ were also called ‘slops’; otherwise the vast majority of men wore elegant knee-breeches or calf-length pantaloons. Close-fitting trousers ending above the ankle were introduced c1807 as a casual summer style and by 1817 these had lengthened to the shoe and were usually worn with straps beneath the foot. Meanwhile, wider trousers known as ‘Cossacks’, gathered at the waist and ankles, were also fashionable until the early 1820s.

Trousers were common for day wear by c1825 and were well established by the Victorian age, during which they became an essential component of the co-ordinated three-piece suit. English tailoring reigned supreme and trouser styles changed over the decades, following the vagaries of fashion: for example, as the waistline rose towards mid-century, trousers were supported by braces. During the 1840s and 1850s, they were slim-fitting, their sleek lines aided by the development of the fly fastening. In the 1860s trousers became looser, but narrowed again throughout the 1870s-1890s, extremely tight pin-striped trousers being flaunted by flamboyant men-about-town termed ‘mashers.’

Trousers were difficult to keep looking clean and smart but the trouser press was invented in the 1890s and by 1900 trousers often had crisp centre creases and turn-ups.

During the first quarter of the 20th century men’s trousers changed little, being cut rather narrow, then, following the vogue for ‘Oxford bags’, widening by 1930, this loose style continuing for the next 25-30 years. Throughout World War Two and its aftermath, fabric and clothing were rationed, and under the Utility scheme civilian trousers were tailored without turn-ups or pockets, leading many to buy trousers too long, to be turned up at home. The shapeless, standardised demob suits issued to ex-servicemen after the war were unpopular but a new sense of style returned to men’s tailoring during the 1950s.