Hunting breeks

For any gentleman-farmer, knickers are a must-have item of clothing. These pants, sometimes slightly puffy, and which stop below the knee are inseparable from a certain idea of ​​hunting. On the other hand, few people know the origin of these pants.

The word knickers comes from Knickerbocker, which was the name of a fictional character in the 19th century across the Atlantic. In 1809, Washington Irving (1783-1859) wrote a short story entitled: A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. It is a satire of the political milieu and local elites. Just before its publication, Washington Irving had fun sending false notices of disappearance in several New York newspapers concerning a certain Mr. Diedrich Knickerbocker, a Dutch historian by trade, a fan of these pants arriving just below the knees.

This literary work had a certain success, and the term knickerbocker passed into common language to designate the inhabitants of Manhattan. So much so that a basketball team, the New Yorkers Knickerbockers, better known by the surname of the Knicks, borrowed this name for their team.

At the start of the 20th century, knickers became the ideal item of clothing for outdoor activities: hunting, golf, skiing, mountaineering... However, they should not be confused with golf pants, worn by a famous Belgian reporter, longer and fuller. Then like any fashion, the knickers disappeared from radar screens in the 1940s, the classic pants as we know them today, definitely returning to mores.

Why wearing breeks?

Tweedchasse doesn't care about fads. As Gustave Thibon so aptly said, “being in the wind: a dead leaf ambition”. Because knickers are the hunting pants par excellence, practical and elegant. Practical since it allows real freedom of movement, which is the essence of good pants, without fear of rubbing with the boot. Elegant in its aesthetics and the material in which it is designed. At Tweedchasse, we offer you this essential garment in tweed, cotton, velvet, buffalo leather, deer leather...

So many choices to be this gentleman of the fields. An ideal to which we all aspire.