Who Were Knee Breeches?

The terms breeches or knee-breeches specifically designate the knee-length garments worn by men from the later 16th century to the early 19th century.

Who wore knee breeches?

American men and boys in the 18th Century wore knee breeches. They evolved from the bloomer like pants men wore in the 16th Century. Boys for most of the Century began wearing knee breeches after breeching. At the time, little boys and girls both wore dresses with little or no difference.

What is the meaning of those without knee breeches?

The sans-culottes (French: [sɑ̃kylɔt], literally "without breeches") were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the Ancien Régime.