Women in Paris can wear pants legally



Photo by Brisbane Times.com au



The French have finally allowed women to wear trousers. The French Minister of Women's Rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem repealed the law which is over 200 years old. and was created during the French Revolution.  The French government amended this law allowing women to wear trousers while riding  a bike or a horse.  Before this repeal police could arrest women for dressing like men according to the Telegraph, a British publication. 

Fascinating especially when you think it was a French designer, Paul Poiret who was the first to design pants for women.  In 1913 Poiret was inspired by Eastern culture and created Harem pants. Then came Coco Channel. a fashion icon who liberated women with her trends of casual looks and created a new silhouette for women out of jersey materials  in the 1930's. She created the riding pants so women could ride without wearing dresses and riding sideways. In the 1950's she introduced pea jackets and bell bottoms for women.

 But as all things come out of necessity, women wore trousers to work on farm work and then to help during World War I in the factories. So trousers on women though a novelty were worn.

Actresses Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn were often photographed in trousers from the 1930s. Looking fantastic they  helped make trousers acceptable for women. During World War II, women in Britain wore their husbands' trousers while  working in factories and serving in the war effort. Who can forget Rosy the Riveter standing proudly dressed in a shirt and trousers showing her  loyalty to her country and working to free the world. Little did she know she was freeing herself to put on trousers. Trousers became acceptable for casual wear, for gardening,  at the beach, and other leisure pursuits during the post-war era.

 With the fight for equal rights, women wore  trousers more and more in the work environment during the 1970's.  In the United States the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which made public education treat males and females equally. Dresses could not be required of female students and dress codes changed in public schools across the United States. Today we have the right to wear pants, long skirts, short skirts and shorts.  So let's open a champagne bottle and toast  Najet Vallaud-Belkacem for taking a step forward and letting go of a law no one styling would take seriously. " Bravo!!!"
Keep Styling in Delco.