The very first American Presidents — George Washington included — led the country through the American Revolution and its earliest days without wearing a single pair of pants. That’s because the Founding Fathers actually wore breeches, pairs of tight-fitting men’s bottoms that cut off at the knee. (Their calves were covered with knee-high stockings.) Breeches were a status symbol; full-length pantaloons were generally reserved for working folk who needed more ease to complete manual labor, which was difficult to do in custom-fitted breeches. The knee-length items were also the pinnacle of men’s fashion because they were on-trend in Europe; Americans generally kept up with overseas styles, in part because the Colonies initially couldn’t mass-produce clothing (for some time, textiles were the top import from England).