Did men/cowboys used to 'blouse' their jeans into their boots? Why did they stop?

[No Wikipedia Cites]

Word on the street (at a western clothing store) is that men now do not blouse (or tuck in) their jeans into their boots.

BUT, they said, men used to (cowboys?) back in 1920's and earlier.

Is that true?

Why did it change?

I sit now effeminate for men to blouse their boots? (The military still does it, so I guess I'm now referring to western wear)

[gazpacho]

It changed because of fashion. If you are a working cowboy you tuck your pants into the boots to keep your pants clean. Just like if you go work in the garden and put on some wellington style boots you tuck your pants in or your pants get muddy.

I don't know if it is effeminate to tuck in your pants but it certainly is not the fashion.

[UncleRojelio]

Sometimes you will see kickers hanging one side of the bottom cuff of their pants off the top of their boot around here. It is usually only on one leg. It is definitely an affectation though. Kind of like sagging (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagging_%28fashion%29).

[Scumpup]

I've seen period photographs that indicate tucking pants into boots, or wearing gaiters, was pretty common among cattle workers, lumberjacks, miners and other manual laborers well into the twentieth century. I own a picture of a great-grandfather and his brother ca.1910 showing them posed with the horses they used on their farm. Both are wearing gaiters. Likewise, I have a picture of a grandfather and his brothers wearing their coal mining clothes ca. 1930. They all have their pants tucked into the tops of waterproof boots. So, yes, it was about keeping your pants clean and/or dry.
OTOH, the ranch workers I knew in Texas wore regular protective toe workboots and didn't blouse their pants or wear gaiters.

[CookingWithGas]

I thought that style was more like the South American Gaucho (http://www.aceros-de-hispania.com/caronero-knife.htm) than the American cowboy.

[Michael of Lucan]

Jeans and boots were originally work wear, and people like me still use them for that purpose. If you are using a chain saw in jeans and boots, you are going to tuck them in.

Obviously, it keeps them cleaner, as others have said. However, it's also a safety issue. Catching your jeans in a chain saw is not good. The drawback is that your boots fill up with sawdustm but it just shakes off.

If you are an urbanite, wearing work clothes as an affectation or fashion item, then it's up to you how you wear them. However, a real man would have dirty boots, and wear his jeans inside them.

And that would make any urbanite spew up his designer water.

[Freudian Slit]

I'm a (female) urbanite, and if I'm sporting long boots, I tuck my jeans/leggings/etc. inside. I like how it looks and it's easier. Plus, you keep drier if it's raining!

[aceplace57]

Paratroopers blouse their uniform pants. I think they still do this even today.

After five jumps from the C-47's, they were qualified paratroopers. They got their jump wings, and finally got to blouse their pants (to have their pants into their boots. Only paratroopers got to blouse their pants. Regular infantrymen had to use straight leg).
http://www.home.no/bandofbrothers/beginning.htm

[ticker]

Jeans and boots were originally work wear, and people like me still use them for that purpose. If you are using a chain saw in jeans and boots, you are going to tuck them in.

If you are using a chainsaw in jeans you are a moron (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pilcLXpdJK0).

[Freudian Slit]

What are you supposed to wear when operating a chainsaw?

[LSLGuy]

Paratroopers blouse their uniform pants. I think they still do this even today.


http://www.home.no/bandofbrothers/beginning.htmWhen I was associated with the US Army in the '80s, everybody bloused their BDU pants. Paratroop-ness had nothing to do with it.

It was about preventing creepy-crawlies from going up inside your pants leg.

[ticker]

A chainsaw will easily, VERY easily, cut through jeans and your flesh in an instant, leaving a very nasty shredded wound. Special chainsaw pants/chaps contain a fibrous Kevlar layer which effectively snarls up the saw before it can do too much damage. Watch the youtube vid I linked to. They demonstrate the proper chaps towards the end.

[naita]

What are you supposed to wear when operating a chainsaw?

Chainsaw pants with chain jamming material that stop up the saw instead of just being shredded before the saw continues on through your leg. "The jeans, they do nothing!" to mangle a quote.

[Chronos]

An even simpler solution is to just not saw through your leg in the first place. Jeans won't protect your legs from the blade, so don't try to make them do that job. They will, however, protect your legs from flying woodchips.

[An Arky]

Lots of guys tuck them in if they're going to do some mucking, etc. plus, work boots (shitkickers) are a bit lower and wider at the top to facilitate this. Pointy boots and boot cut jeans are for drugstore cowboys.

[An Arky]

...I should amend that to say also for regular cowboys not mucking, etc. Boot cut jeans are better for fitting over shitkickers, too.

[Malthus]

I assume they stopped when the wearers stopped worrying about getting cow shit on their jeans, or about having horseflies, blackflies and the like crawling up their legs to bite 'em.

[An Arky]

Sorry for the excessive posts, but I went to google up shitkickers and got nothing like what they really are/were. They're like cowboy boots, except a bit lower/wider around the ankles and somewhat rounded, not pointy toes and not a big heel. I'm sure someone from cattle country knows what I'm talking about.

[Lynn Bodoni]

If you're in an area with a lot of fleas/ticks/chiggers, tucking your pants into your boots can help prevent the damn bloodsuckers from crawling up your pants and biting into your tender, juicy flesh.

[sitchensis]

I have never met a logger that wore anything but jeans. Kevlar chaps are a necessary piece of safety equipment for the weekend warrior but I have never met someone who makes their living with a chainsaw wear chaps. Most loggers I know hem up their pants to land mid shin, so they don’t catch them on branches when walking on the trees. Caulk (cork) boots fit tightly around the calf, there is not enough room for tucked in jeans.

[Tom Tildrum]

If you are using a chainsaw in jeans you are a moron (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pilcLXpdJK0).

Mmmmm ... ham.

[Snnipe 70E]

I bloused my pants into my boots when working. If I ws in the field to look at something and was headed to somewhere nice after I would blouse my pants.

With my pants over my boot tops they would keep chaft, dirt or slag and other stuff ut of my boots.

[chacoguy]

They tuck their jeans in their boots so that the sheep's hind legs can fit in there too. ;)

[DrCube]

When I was associated with the US Army in the '80s, everybody bloused their BDU pants. Paratroop-ness had nothing to do with it.

It was about preventing creepy-crawlies from going up inside your pants leg.

The Army blouses their boots to this day. The thing with the paratroopers is that they wear jump boots and blouse them in their Class A uniform as well, not just fatigues.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/US-PARATROOPER-BLUES.png

[LSLGuy]

Cool. We had a bunch of jump qualified folks from both USAF & USA, but I never saw any Army folks in Class A's. We were generally out in the field.

[Steophan]

I imagine the guys in the Motley Crue tribute band I'm seeing next Sunday will tuck their jeans into their cowboy boots, mainly because they'll be too tight to go over them.