The genuine sailors pants

These masculine trousers, with its timeless and elegant look, and recognizable double buttoning, are from a french source of the end of the XVIIIe century. It will for long be one of the permanent sailor uniforms, that will allow the conservation of its shape to remain unchanged until nowadays, and to continue its production on the long term when, somewhere else in the society, it will be out of fashion for men during a while.

However, it is indeed the feminine fashion that has taken it over as well, and made its gender switch with the “women with pants” little revolution, at the beginning of the XXe century. This kind of clothes were once prohibited for them ; the new sea bath trend marks the start of the “soft” trousers acceptance for women at the beach ; a massive social phenomenon appealing well beyond “tomboy” and signing a new look. Getting dressed with a sailor style becomes fashionable in seaside resorts. Naturally, these trousers will be ones of the first to be worn for its theme and copied by fashion houses, and  it will make a lasting impression on the public : striped sailor shirt, buttoned sailor pants, wide or fit, plated and bobbed hair, wide band…

These flap pants become the uniform of this new lifestyle trend, freer, more streamlined, functional, as well as intellectual. Even at the end of the XIXe century, some women like George Sand, Rosa Bonheur or Hubertine Auclert, had claimed that right (By decree, the Prefecture of Paris forbids, in 1800, women to wear pants). They would have to present a license of travesty, pretending that they were practicing men's work, to be authorized to wear pants. This tribute was given then by Gabrielle Chanel, before Zelda Fitzerald, Greta Garbo, or Marlène Dietrich.  

Moreover, the new practice of sport has sped up the advent of pants in women 's clothing. Horse Riding, bicycling, automobile racing, are some of the activities that improved the adaptation of women's outfit, justifying the progressive decline of skirts and dresses, even if it will go mainstream only during the 50/60’s.

And so 30’s, 40’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s… Decades of fashion follow one another without ever letting go of this aesthetic, from a very chic environment of privileged people on holiday, to the very scoundrel and urban environment of popular balls. It is socially elastic like many clothes, a reference for all the others.

It has become UNISEX, because elegant men have never abandoned this iconic landmark, and it is making a major comeback in men's locker rooms at a time when the taste for workwear is creating a surge in the choice of iconic pants.

Its navy source : the common story tells that these trousers, without any zip, were more suitable to get down ropes, ends, and to not get stuck in the nets. Worn with a sailor smock, without button neither, it became then the uniform of military sailors. If the convenience of this set is unequivocal, it seems that this story is not the origin of the flap sailor pants improvement. This idea is confirmed by observing them correctly : paradoxically they are covered in buttons.

The “deck”, precisely, is the fabric piece that flaps back on the front of the pants, and which is attached by a button on the side and on the belt. At the end of the XVIIIe century, the Ancien Regime short trousers, aristocratic clothes, were left out to the benefit of the pants by the “sans culotte”. Sailor pants are one of the prefered models by men, beside the mythic red striped pants. It is then a “small deck” pant, classic and buttoned by the belt. At the end of the XIXe siècle, this model stands out and is worn with a “wide deck”. The deck expands, the buttons become visible and are moving to the side. This revisited model of the deck pants is definitely infiltrating the navy trades.

At deTOUJOURS, it inevitably comes from the source which is the only one to conserve in a stable way its original design and so from the navy equipment manufacturers, in new stock, but no longer manufactured.