From old movies, a men’s suit used to come with an extra pair of pants. This seems perfectly reasonable as the pants get more wear and tear than a suit jacket. Most the people I know who wear suits take off the jacket when they actually start working.
So when did the second pair of pants disappear? Are there any places where you still get a second pair? Do bespoke suits come with a second pair of pants?
I got my first suit (size 38 Reg. Boy, that was a long time ago) in the 1960s. There were a handful of suits still being sold with two pairs of pants around, but not many. I’d guess it had completely disappeared by the mid-70s, although some men’s stores would special order a second pair.
Of course, a few years after that “men’s stores” had basically disappeared, as well.
Every time I’ve had a suit tailored (which is exactly twice), I’ve asked for an extra pair of trousers. That alone makes the extra time and inconvenience worth it to me. There was no surprise at this request, so it’s still a common enough thing in India, at any rate.
The first suit I bought in 1979 only came with one pair of pants. None I looked at had a second pair of pants back then.
During the 60s and 70s, Western fashion changed a lot. Many men quit wearing business suits on a regular basis, sometimes in favor of jeans and tshirt, but more often they embraced the leisure suit, sometimes (OK, lots of times) in colors that should never have been seen, and almost always in 100% polyester, which was regarded as a miracle fabric. The men who needed to wear a jacket, but who were too timid or too sensible to wear leisure suits, sometimes wore a sports coat and pants. Men and women stopped wearing gloves and hats as an everyday thing. There was much fashion experimenting going on. I remember, for instance, that I had a denim poncho and pants set (they weren’t true jeans) in junior high school, which I was very fond of.
President Richard Nixon wore long pants and wingtips to the beach, and was soundly ridiculed for it.
Women were starting to wear pants in public, not just for practical reasons, but for stylish reasons as well. Offices and schools at first tried to set dress codes that required dresses or skirts (for women), and then later conceded that pants suits might be allowed. For women, the navy three piece polyester pant suit became the “little black dress” of earlier years. The 3PPPS usually consisted of a white blouse with billowing sleeves, a pair of solid somber navy pants, and a vest which was either the same solid color, or a print with the same navy as one of the colors. These suits were hot and sticky in the summer, and provided no warmth at all in the winter. A pants suit might also consist of a jacket or jacketlike top and matching pants. Wearing a blouse or other top under the pantsuit top was a matter of the wearer’s taste. At the same time, designers had fashioned hot pants suits (for women only) which had a jacketlike top and hot pants as the bottoms. Hot pants, for those of you lucky enough not to have lived through them, were very short shorts, sometimes with a cuff, that were marketed as an active and sexy woman’s alternative to miniskirts. I remember the uproar that happened when my sluttier classmates tried to wear hot pants to school as everyday clothing.
As far as I know it has to do with improvements in dye technology. Basically, it used to be that dyes from different lots would look quite different, so that if your trousers wore out or got a hole, you couldn’t just buy another pair because they wouldn’t match.
Nowadays, the technology is so good that you can buy the same suit from, eg. Brooks Bros or wherever, and tomorrow or next week or next year, pick up a pair of matching trousers, and they will actually match.
Lynn, while researching on microfilm for patrons from the 70’s I found an ad for pants that were bellbottoms, with zippers, so you could zip them off and get hot pants. Polyester, of course. I printed it off and put it on the bulletin board so everybody could enjoy the nightmare pants.
That is just a horrifing thought. Two fashion disasters for the price of one pair of pants, what a bargain!
Every suit that I’ve bought in the last ten years or so has come with a second pair of trousers.
The 70s were so full of fashion disasters that they had to make packaged deals! Two for the price of one!