Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 45

[cahn]

Unfortunately, there was then at Berlin a King who pursued one policy only, who deceived his enemies, but not his servants, and who lied without scruple, but never without necessity.

(from The King's Secret - by Duke de Broglie, grand-nephew of the subject of the book, Comte de Broglie, and grandfather of the physicist) )

Comments

Breeches

[mildred_of_midgard]

I did not know those details about the calves vs thighs, and the make of breeches!

I assume at least the lower thighs had to be tight in riding breeches? My impression is that the reason breeches are tight is that your legs will get chafed if you ride with baggy pants, and that's why the upper classes wore breeches and the lower classes (literally "sans-culottes", "without breeches") did not. One class was riding regularly, and the other was not.

Re: Breeches

[luzula]

Early to mid-18th century breeches look to be really ingeniously constructed! Check out this post from a guy who does historical sewing. The post has examples of historical breeches and also examples from paintings. They are splayed, so that when you sit astride a horse, they will presumably lie flat along the butt and underside of your thighs. But when you're standing, that extra fabric will bunch up, making the breeches presumably loose enough to be comfortable and give you freedom of movement. And of course, if they bunch up in the crotch that doesn't give you any chafing when you're riding. But that didn't work with the later short waistcoats, since apparently no one wanted to see the bunched-up fabric at the crotch.

Not sure how later breeches managed to be comfortable when riding, since they were straighter and tighter! Perhaps something about the construction in the butt? Hmm, must investigate further...

Re: Breeches

[mildred_of_midgard]

Oh, that's neat, thank you! Bookmarked!

Re: Breeches

[cahn]

Oh, that's neat! I hadn't realized that much thought would have to go into them. Let us know when you find out about later breeches :)

Re: Breeches

[luzula]

This Twitter thread is amusing and has more on 18th century breeches! It's not said outright, but I now suspect that the fall front of late 18th breeches is there to conceal a similar sort of bunching as we see on earlier breeches.

Re: Breeches

[mildred_of_midgard]

That was great, thank you for sharing!

Salon update: this week is going to be brutal at work, but my 14-hour days are paying off and I'm catching up on work, and I hope to be back to salon next weekend. I may even manage to read (no promises about replying to) Selena's many FS posts, which I have been looking forward to, tomorrow. (Usually when I'm behind on salon for this long, it's behind on replying, not on reading--I think this is the first time I've fallen this far behind on reading!)

Looking forward to seeing you all again soon!