02-15-2009, 03:54 AM
I guess you could, Magnus. I haven't had good luck with that, because the fit is different. In the older styles, the seat is looser, and the crotch hangs a little lower, the waist is a little higher (up above the hip bones). You should be able to squat or sit without the back of the waist band pulling down like the classic plumber crack thingy.
My modern pants are much tighter fitting, and tailored differently, and they don't act the same way on the body as what I understand ancient pants do. This based on having cut up a torn up pair of old blue jeans to make a pattern. Didn't work very well. My first braccae were cut from a modified pattern for 19th Century leather fur trade era trousers. It worked ok, but those were really 4 piece shaped. To eliminate the outseam, some alterations to the waist band and hip fit is really needful, and a lot more "rise" (the measurement from waistband to waistband under the crotch) needs to be increased.
That's just my view, though, others may do things differently. Someday, a pair of Thorsbjurgs are in the mill, but lots of other things ahead of those. From the picture on your site, Matt, you're entirely correct about the strange shape. Look at how much "extra" material is in the crotch! That allows for squatting without moving the waistband. I have no idea how comfortable that would be...odds are, not very by our standards. Some of those "triangular" shapes on older clothing are really squares, seen from one side, much like the armpit/sleeve gussets on Poet shirts, for example.
My modern pants are much tighter fitting, and tailored differently, and they don't act the same way on the body as what I understand ancient pants do. This based on having cut up a torn up pair of old blue jeans to make a pattern. Didn't work very well. My first braccae were cut from a modified pattern for 19th Century leather fur trade era trousers. It worked ok, but those were really 4 piece shaped. To eliminate the outseam, some alterations to the waist band and hip fit is really needful, and a lot more "rise" (the measurement from waistband to waistband under the crotch) needs to be increased.
That's just my view, though, others may do things differently. Someday, a pair of Thorsbjurgs are in the mill, but lots of other things ahead of those. From the picture on your site, Matt, you're entirely correct about the strange shape. Look at how much "extra" material is in the crotch! That allows for squatting without moving the waistband. I have no idea how comfortable that would be...odds are, not very by our standards. Some of those "triangular" shapes on older clothing are really squares, seen from one side, much like the armpit/sleeve gussets on Poet shirts, for example.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
