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Breeches

Knee-length trousers of the aristocratic gentleman

Breeches were knee-length trousers worn by European men from the 16th through 19th centuries, fastened below the knee with buttons or buckles and paired with silk stockings. As the successor to medieval hose, they became a powerful symbol of aristocratic status — so much so that French revolutionaries called themselves "sans-culottes" (without breeches) to mark their rejection of the upper class. Though displaced by full-length trousers in the 19th century, breeches survive today in equestrian and ceremonial court dress.