In my book about the history of toilets, I pointed out that historically, the style of toilets has been dictated by male fashions. In cultures where men wore robes that could be hiked up–such as togas, or chitons, or kaftans– toilets tended to be the squatting variety. In cultures where men wore trousers or hose that had to be pulled down, toilets tended to be the sitting type (ie close stools and garderobes).
Which leads to the question: When were pants first worn? Worry not, Dear Reader–I’ve done some research.
Loose trousers were first worn in the 6th century BC when the Persians conquered the Babylonians. Roman togas had gone out of style by this point. The Persian conquerors came from the mountains of what is now called Turkistan, so they wore cold-weather clothes, including, for both men and women, trousers.* I’ve blogged before about the trouser-wearing, semi-nomadic warrior tribes the Romans considered barbarians. But I hadn’t found a decent shot of someone wearing pants before now. Here’s a pretty good example of a Scythian warrior sporting the style:
High-ranking women in the Persian empire signaled their social rank by wearing voluminous layers of trousers. When a European woman was presented at the Persian court wearing a floor-length dress, they at first believed she had lost a leg. **