Identity: Gender

In most cultures, men dress differently from women. The color, fabric, and shape of garments send signals about gender; such elements vary widely from culture to culture and change over time. In Western dress, men traditionally have worn trousers, and women have worn skirts. In the eighteenth century a man would have worn a waistcoat such as this one with a cutaway coat and breeches that buckled below the knee. As the Industrial Revolution progressed in the nineteenth century, men’s wear became plainer, darker in color, and knee breeches were replaced with long trousers.