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Without the proper pronunciation, lederhosen are nothing more than “sadly breeches,” a far cry from the virile and robust connotations of the pants and their wearers.
In the 17th century, the working class wore the knee-length trousers for hard labor and outdoor activity. Using goat or sheep-skin, workers found them easier to make and more durable than cotton britches.
Hunters, riders and workers throughout Europe wore them, but Bavarians made them famous with the innovation of the drop-front flap. They were equally popular as garments for men in the Tyrol, an area of western Austria and northern Italy. Usually the rule went that the younger the wearer, the shorter the pant, but all lederhosen, regardless of length, boasted traditional embroidery on the leg and suspenders, stylized by region and a source of Alpine pride.
A century later these hearty workpants lost their panache as more people moved to cities and shed their peasantry in favor of urban progress. That is until the late 1800s, which found Europeans tossing about in full Rococo swing. The nobility embraced intricate decorations, often less “prudish” than their Baroque predecessors. Ironically, at the same time, part of their new philosophy was the search for a simpler life. While they may not have acted in pursuit of living a more basic existence, they did wear the clothes like a badge. They donned lederhosen and drindl, the region’s feminized work clothes. Nobles’ lederhosen were made of deerskin, the softest of the animal hides, and embroidered with pastoral scenes and indications of status.
Eventually, the nobility gave up on their aspirations of simplicity and the use of lederhosen became more of a matter of cultural pride and representation. Now they are worn for weddings and traditional folk customs like Oktoberfest, while blue jeans have replaced them as the workpant of choice.
In fact, Levi Strauss, the first blue jean manufacturer, is Bavarian too. And so it goes that the same place that created lederhosen was also responsible for their utilitarian demise with the invention of denim successors.