Older Women in Pants—Photos from the Teens and Twenties

San Jose State University Archives, via Calisphere. Click to enlarge

My favorite topic of all time is tracing the history of older American women in pants.  It was only in the 1970s that older women adopted pants in great numbers, but that does not mean that some didn’t try the style before then.  Just like their younger counterparts, some older women adopted this practical attire for work and leisure.  Slowly I am amassing a collection of photos to document this.

Above we see a woman machine worker in a practical pair of overalls.  The archive at San Jose State University gives the date as 1915, but offers no information on the woman or the factory. These might have been men’s wear, adapted to her work environment.

Special Collections, University of California Irvine, 1924. Click to enlarge

And in a collection of vacation scrapbooks I found this wonderful hand tinted photo of an older couple marveling at a yucca plant while on a trip to California.  The woman is dressed in either knickerbockers with a matching shirt or a pair of dungarees. She could have found either in a Montgomery Ward catalog.

Now if I could just find a photo of an older woman in beach pajamas!

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One Response to Older Women in Pants—Photos from the Teens and Twenties

  1. Both photos are great. I’m betting the woman with the giant yucca is wearing knickers.

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