Young Blonde Girl In Silver Pants With A Guitar

Trousers of various design were worn throughout the Middles Ages in Europe, especially by males. Loose fitting trousers were worn in Byzantium under long tunics, and were worn by many of the barbarian tribes specially Xiongnu Hun that migrated through Europe in the Early Middle Ages, as evidenced by both artistic sources and the such relics as the Fourth Century costumes recovered from the Thorsberg bog. Trousers in this period, generally called brais, varied in length and were often closed at the cuff or even have attached feet covering, although open legged pants were also seen.
By the Eighth Century there is evidence of the wearing in Europe of two layers of trousers, especially among upper class males. This under layer is today referred to by costume historians as “drawers,” although that usage did not emerge until the late 16th Century. Over the drawers were worn trousers of wool or linen, which in the 10th Century began to be referred to as breeches in many places. Tightness of fit and length of leg varied by period, class, and geography. (Open legged trousers can be seen on the Norman soldiers of the Bayeux Tapestry.)
Although Charlemagne (742–814) is recorded to have habitually worn his trousers, donning the Byzantine tunic only for ceremonial occasions, the influence of the Roman past and Byzantium led to the increasing use of long tunics by men, hiding most of the trousers from view and eventually rendering it an undergarment for many. As undergarments, these trousers became briefer or longer as the length of the various medieval outer-garments changed and were met by, and usually attached to another garment variously called hose or stockings.
In the 14th Century it became common among the men of the noble and knightly classes to connect the hose directly to their pourpoints (the padded under jacket worn with armored breastplates that would later evolve into the doublet) rather than to their drawers. In the 15th Century, rising hemlines led to ever briefer drawers until they were dispensed with altogether by the most fashionable elites who joined their skin tight hose back into trousers. These trousers, which we would today call tights but which were still called hose or sometimes joined hose at the time, emerged late in the 15th Century and were conspicuous by their open crotch which was covered by an independently fastening front panel, the codpiece. The exposure of the hose to the waist was consistent with 15th Century trends which also brought pourpoint/doublet and the shirt, previous undergarments, into view, but the most revealing of these fashions were only ever adopted at court and not by the general population.