Monday 18 October 2010

Prototype: Fall Front Breeches

The fall front breeches (or britches, if you fancy the different spelling) are made of black linen and feature rivet buttons and buckle below the knee.

The exact cut of breeches varied through their five hundred or so years in men's fashion (sixteenth to nineteenth century). Their approximate trajectory appears to have been to have begun very full (but gathered at the knee) and slowly become more fitted as the centuries passed, first to the legs and then upwards. By around the early eighteenth century fashionable English breeches tended to be low cut to fit around the hips and style to be very full around the ass (in a baggy way that would not necessarily be termed flattering to the modern eye). These in particular, though were styled to be quite generic, though would be rather late in their history (late eighteenth to early nineteenth century) due to being relatively high-waisted and fitted.

The Proprietor confessed to feeling more silly than dashing in these breeches. He wears them with a pair of fencing socks (the logo of which we had to carefully angle out of view). He also wears in various combinations in the photos: the winged doublet, the reversible cloak and a generic frilly shirt. 

To commission a pair of breeches from the Mercenary would cost in the region of £15-20.

More photos of the fall-front breeches under the cut.


1 comment:

  1. It is another symbol of Indian power dressing. Although the uses of Jodhpur breeches are many, it is the main riding apparel as well as the main item of Equestrian clothing, hunting clothing

    ReplyDelete

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