# The origins of pants cuffs **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 1, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-origins-of-pants-cuffs/204972 "2003-10-01T20:01:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheAndyChrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d2c977/32.png) [@TheAndyChrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheAndyChrist)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-origins-of-pants-cuffs/204972/1 "2003-10-01T20:01:37Z")
I told some friends at lunch today that I read that pants cuffs were first invented to be used like a portable ashtray for men and their cigars. I was 100% positive that I read that in one of the SD books, but when I searched the archive, nothing came up. Can anyone find something on this and back me up? My co-workers think I make stuff up. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-origins-of-pants-cuffs/204972/2 "2003-10-01T21:00:56Z")
You made it up. Seriously, think about it, why would a man dump cigar ashes on his trousers? S&M clothiers maybe… Trouser cuffs, or “turn-ups” became a sporty-looking affectation around the late 1800’s in England, I’m going by memory here. My reference books are home and I am not. I will get back to you tomorrow as I will try to link cuffs to the fierce struggle to determine whether the trouser crease went from front to back or side to side. Not the most exciting struggle in human history but not the _least_ exciting. until tomorrow… ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-origins-of-pants-cuffs/204972/3 "2003-10-01T21:15:21Z")
Actually, my husband uses his cuffs for an ashtray. Maybe I said that before and that’s where you heard it. I know…it sucks, but he doesn’t like to toss the butts around, so he tucks them into his cuffs. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-origins-of-pants-cuffs/204972/4 "2003-10-02T19:26:12Z")
[WAG]A lot of fashion features are the result of making decorative something that once had utility. There was a SD article on why men’s suit coats have buttons on the cuffs, that made the whole thing sound rather puzzling. But at one time, it seems certain that the buttons were needed to close the cuff against the elements. We have buttons on shirt cuffs and no one wonders about _that_. So styles changed, and the buttons were kept around for nostalgic purposes. Today, have you seen that new style for women’s jeans where they bleach parts of the jeans? It would be incomprehensible why anyone would do that unless you had seen _real_ jeans back in the 60’s that had a few years of wear on them. People are looking for instant gratification without paying their dues. Anyway, my guess here would be that the pressed cuff is an echo of a time when pant legs were loosely rolled up to prevent an unfinished edge from unraveling.[/WAG] ---
**Author:** ![Eliphalet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eliphalet/32/9563_2.png) [@Eliphalet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eliphalet)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-origins-of-pants-cuffs/204972/5 "2003-10-02T19:47:34Z")
Building on **CookingWithGas** : Cattlemen in the old West would often turn their pants cuffs up to hold small items, like nails or staples. That would keep the supplies close at hand while riding the range. Not sure that this ever went any further into the fashion world. Not much else that cowboys wore ever did, darn it. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-origins-of-pants-cuffs/204972/6 "2003-10-02T20:14:34Z")
Just an idea here, but I’d think cuffs on pants were common way before the 1800’s. Cloth was an expensive commodity way back in the Middle Ages, and hand-me-down clothing was the norm, even for the highest classes. Cuffs are a handy way of adjusting pants to the height of the wearer, without permanently removing the excess cloth. You just roll up several layers of cloth into the cuff, and then stitch it there. A year or so later, when the pants have passed on to the next wearer, the cuffs can be unrolled as needed to adjust to the new wearers’ height. This was common in Minnesota in the 1960’s, by middle class families. I’d surely think that poor folks of the Middle Ages would have been just as economical! ---
**Author:** ![johncole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@johncole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johncole)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-origins-of-pants-cuffs/204972/7 "2003-10-03T08:10:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by [t-bonham@scc.net](mailto:t-bonham@scc.net) \* > \*\*Just an idea here, but I’d think cuffs on pants were common way before the 1800’s. > > Cloth was an expensive commodity way back in the Middle Ages, and hand-me-down clothing was the norm, even for the highest classes. > \*\* Before the 1800’s - yes, but not _way_ before, and certainly not in the Middle Ages when the basic clothing style was the tunic (with or without hose or leg wrapping). From [this site](http://histclo.hispeed.com/style/pants/trouser/trouserh.html) > [@](#): > > Long trousers first appeared in the 18th century as garments for peasants and workers and sailors. They were looked down on by the established classses. The French referred to the people wearing them cotempuosly as the “sansculotes”. > > Men and boys in the 18th Century both wore knee breeches with no differentiation in style or length. It was boys which first began wearing long trousers in the 1780s. For several decade while men continued to wear knee breeches, boys wore long pants skeleton suits. After men began to commonly dress in trousers by the 1820s. spell-checking apparently turned off at that location At that time the \“fashion conscious”\ wore knee breeches. Breeches had to be tailored to the wearer, but trousers could be made in a standard size (or two) and adjusted to the user using a draw-string waist (or a belt) and rolling up the cuffs to suit. We must remember that trousers (with or without turn-ups or cuffs) as a male garment is specific to European culture. In the East, both men and women have worn trousers for a _looong_ time. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-origins-of-pants-cuffs/204972/8 "2003-10-03T11:36:48Z")
I have no idea how reliable that guy from “The Rest of Story” (dangit; I know his name) on the radio is, but the Duke of Windsor was just recently credit with their invention, at least for men’s clothes. Apparently had had abdicated (or never took) the throne to be a men’s fashion designer! It was also pointed out that despite the name he didn’t invent the Windsor knot. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-origins-of-pants-cuffs/204972/9 "2003-10-03T11:38:42Z")
Damn; just remembered: Paul Harvey. ---
**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-origins-of-pants-cuffs/204972/10 "2003-10-03T13:39:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Balthisar \* > \*\*I have no idea how reliable that guy from “The Rest of Story” (dangit; I know his name) on the radio is, but the Duke of Windsor was just recently credit with their invention, at least for men’s clothes. Apparently had had abdicated (or never took) the throne to be a men’s fashion designer! It was also pointed out that despite the name he didn’t invent the Windsor knot. \*\* I heard this one on the radio a few days ago… and now you know… the resssst of the ssssstory