# Can any one tell me the name of these type of pants? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2004, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550 "2004-08-06T01:41:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/1 "2004-08-06T01:41:29Z")
I’m looking for the name of the type of pants usually worn in the renaissance, or later on that only go down to just below the knee. In german their called knicker bockers. Are they called the same thing here? Incidently, does anyone know of a site that has a free pattern for it I can download? ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/2 "2004-08-06T01:43:57Z")
bloomers? pantaloons? ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/3 "2004-08-06T01:49:13Z")
In later times (18th and early 19th centuries) they’re called breeches. Breeches are usually pretty tight, even skin-tight, so that might not be what you’re looking for. Wider ones might be called knickers (although I associate that term with early-20th-century young boy’s clothing). The really boofy Renaissance ones are called slops. Bloomers and pantaloons are feminine clothing, I think. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/4 "2004-08-06T01:52:36Z")
Oh - and here’s drafting instructions to make your own pattern: [http://www.reddawn.net/costume/breeches.htm](http://www.reddawn.net/costume/breeches.htm) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/5 "2004-08-06T01:57:24Z")
For patterns, check [here.](http://www.alteryears.com/renaissance/ren-mens.html) ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/6 "2004-08-06T03:06:08Z")
Janet Arnold consistently refers to them as breeches in _Patterns of Fashion c 1560-1620_. If Madame Arnold refers to them as breeches, that’s good enough for me. Some people seem to use hosen and breeches to mean the same thing, though. You should be able to get PoF through interlibrary loan. I highly suggest you do, as it’s a diamond mine of garb information. There’s a pattern in PoF for [Venetian hosen](http://www.swordsofhonor.com/vebr.html), which is exactly what you’re looking for. The extant ones are made up in horizontally striped fabric, though, which gives a serious girl hips effect. The ones in the link are taken from the Janet Arnold pattern, I’m pretty sure. They’re from the same museum, at least. For free online patterns, there’s a [how-to here for non-paneled, non-cannioned trunkhosen](http://phelan.ou.edu/anya/trunkhosen1.html). [Vertetsable](http://www.vertetsable.com/research_main.htm) has a ton of extant pattern manuscripts online, with translations of the pattern captions. [The Elizabethan Costuming Page](http://costume.dm.net) has extensive [links](http://www.costume.dm.net/content.html#patterns) to online patterns, both free and not. Unfortunately, it focuses mostly on women’s clothing. There are no extant patterns or examples of a pantaloon-type garment for women in the SCA period, that I know of. (Unless you want to count the [Roman bikini girls](http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/romeball.html).) If I recall correctly, pantaloons really didn’t take hold until the Regency/Empire era in the early 19th century, and not widely until the crinoline came in. I think if women were wearing a biforcated garment on their legs like a man’s, during the Elizabethan period, Philip Stubbes would have ragged on that in his _Anatomie of Abuses_. (Please someone correct me if I’m wrong.) ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/7 "2004-08-06T05:08:04Z")
> [@Miss Purl McKnittington](#): > > For free online patterns, there’s a [how-to here for non-paneled, non-cannioned trunkhosen](http://phelan.ou.edu/anya/trunkhosen1.html). I took a closer look at this link and realised that it was for _paned_ trunkhosen. It was hard to tell as the accompanying photos were black suede panes on black silk. If you skip the step of paning the breeches, though, you have a plain breeches pattern. Also, further research shows that Venetian hosen are also called Venetian breeches and Venetian slops. Hosen seems to be used in period to cover anything that goes on a dude below the waist, while breeches seems more prevalent today. Slops seems like it might be a general term as well, though that might just be modern folks conflating the two. _Anatomie of Abuses_ here I come! ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/8 "2004-08-06T13:45:08Z")
Ahhh! Thanks everyone, I’m having my SO work on a pair for me 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/9 "2004-08-06T15:12:31Z")
Hosen…that’s just German for “short pants”, isn’t it? Like lederhosen? I call 'em “Proc” Pants. After a kid named Bill Procedo whose pants were ALWAYS too short. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/10 "2004-08-06T20:16:38Z")
> [@\[A Compendium of Common Knowledge](#): > > ([http://renaissance.dm.net/compendium/36.html](http://renaissance.dm.net/compendium/36.html))All kinds of pants (slops or venetians, etc.) are called hose, specifically trunk hose, because they cover the trunk of the body. > . . . > Hose that cover the lower part of the leg are called nether hose or nether stocks. “Hosen” just means “pants”. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/11 "2004-08-06T23:28:29Z")
In the 1930’s golfers, and young boys wore corduroy Knickerbockers Knickerbockers: Full breeches gathered and banded just below the knee; knickers. Corduroy: A durable cut-pile fabric, usually made of cotton, with vertical ribs. Caveat: These knickers are not the same as the British variety, or so I have been told. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-any-one-tell-me-the-name-of-these-type-of-pants/258550/12 "2004-08-07T22:56:58Z")
Plusfours?