Work wear trousers are worn today by both men and women in a vast array of work environments. From the office to the factory, from restaurants to bars, there are garments specifically designed for each gender in a range of styles and designs depending on what is required for each working environment. They are manufactured from durable fabrics, which are ideally suited for the rigours encountered during the working day

However, this hasn’t always been the case. In fact it was only in February this year that the French Government finally overturned a 200 year old ban on women wearing any form of trousers at all. The law was originally implemented on November 17th 1800, and had over the years in effect already been rescinded because of its incompatibility with modern life, but had never been officially removed from the statute books. According to the law, women required permission from the local police if they wanted “to dress like a man” and wear trousers. It was originally intended to prevent women doing certain jobs or being involved in certain occupations. It had been modified in the early twentieth century to allow women to wear trousers if they “were holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse”

Here in the UK, women had worn trousers if they worked in the coal industry during the Victorian era, namely the Wigan pit brow girls, but they had to wear a skirt over the top of them. During the First and Second World Wars the wearing of trousers became more acceptable as women worked in the factories and on the farms while the men served in the armed forces.

In today’s modern world we don’t think twice about men or women wearing work wear trousers, in fact with the introduction of modern safety rules and regulations there would be more raised eyebrows if a woman tried to wear a skirt in certain work scenarios.