Interesting discussion on Reddit

[renesm1]

I don't look at Reddit that often but stumbled upon this.

It's quite long so may need a few sittings to finish it!

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/c ... pants_and/

[STEVIE]

"A few sittings" may be something of an understatement.
I'm fairly sure that there's no definitive answer to the question.
Still, interesting , especially the "Biblical" quotes.
Steve.

[jeanfor]

One thing that nobody mentions is that women used to wear long dresses/skirts for modesty purposes. Knee length or shorter is very recent for women. Men were the one wearing the short skirts and dresses. In general men fashion was much less boring than today. It is probably linked to the fact that much of the American culture today is against men's beauty which was not the case in the past. As most of us do not ride horses any longer there is no need to stick only with the pants (I think this has been discussed at length by men who are pushing for men's skirts)

[Zorba]

...American culture today is against men's beauty which was not the case in the past.

Male beauty has been a lifelong quest of mine - not only is today's culture "against" masculine beauty, its forgotten what it is or even that it ever existed!