Knickerbockers , or knickers in the United States (US), are a form of baggy-kneed breeches , particularly popular in the early 20th-century United States . Golfers ' plus twos and plus fours are similar. Until after World War I , in many English-speaking countries, boys customarily wore short pants in summer and "knee pants" similar to knickers in winter. At the onset of puberty or sometime in their teens, they graduated to long trousers. In that era, the transition to "long pants" was a major rite of passage. Men continued to wear knickerbockers for athletics, outdoor work, and other informal activities for which they were practical. During the early 20th century, knickerbockers were also increasingly worn by women.
27-469: Jane Inglis Clark (1859/1860–1950) was a Scottish mountaineer and rock climber. She co-founded the Ladies' Scottish Climbing Club with Lucy Smith and Mabel Clark in 1908. Inglis Clark was born Jane Isabella Shannon to Isabella Struthers Wilson and David Shannon, a tea planter . In 1884 she married William Inglis Clark and they had two children, Mabel Clark (1885-1967) and Charles Clark (1888-1918). During
54-450: A just-past-the-knee variant of racing tights reserved for colder-weather riding. Knickers are still worn as part of the conventional uniform in fencing . Knickerbockers are often worn in baseball as pants, a custom that has been practiced even since long pants became widely used in the US. The traditional knickerbockers of old were more like pants that had been folded back with long socks. During
81-404: A room like a burst of sunshine. But she was hard as old nails. They were all characters..." The Club returned to Lix Toll and the boulder now surrounded by trees to more celebrations. Knickerbockers (clothing) The fashion was exported from the US to Britain around the 1860s and continued until the 1920s, when it was superseded by above-knee-length short trousers (shorts), probably due to
108-418: A well-known example of an invented tradition .) "Knickerbocker" became a byword for a New York patrician, comparable to a " Boston Brahmin ". The " New York Knickerbockers " were an amateur social and athletic club organized by Alexander Cartwright on Manhattan's (Lower) East Side in 1842, largely to play " base ball " according to written rules, the first organized team in baseball history ; on June 19, 1846
135-406: Is no sport like mountaineering. It is the overcoming of difficulties, the mental climbing, as well as the physical, that give it such a zest. The troubles of life seem to fade away in the presence of the everlasting hills. We may go out tired and worn in mind and body; we return renewed and restored: health re-established and friendships strengthened. As a memorial of their son, a keen mountaineer who
162-540: Is the oldest active climbing club exclusively for women. The club has sent numerous expeditions abroad and made the first all-woman climb of a major peak in the Himalayas . The club was founded by three experienced climbers: Jane Inglis Clark, her daughter Mabel, and Lucy Smith. Miss Smith was the daughter of a president of the Scottish Mountaineering Club and Mrs Inglis Clark's husband William Inglis Clark
189-450: The Beuckle ( Buachaille Etive Mòr ) and Suilven . To be decent, they would start their climbs in long skirts but, when no men were around, would often discard these to climb in knickerbockers . They attracted climbers from Glasgow too and the total membership in the early years was about 70. In 1947, the club took a lease on its first climbing hut —Blackrock Cottage near Glencoe —and
216-641: The First World War , Inglis Clark was a Voluntary Aid Detachment Commandant for the Red Cross . From 1919-1938 she was a parish and county councillor in Edinburgh , where she also served as a Justice of the Peace . Inglis Clark was a keen hillwalker who discovered rock climbing in 1897. With a natural aptitude for climbing difficult routes, from 1897 to 1904, Inglis Clark was part of six first ascents on Ben Nevis . She
243-636: The New York Knickerbockers played the first game of "base ball" organized under those rules, in Hoboken, New Jersey , and were trounced, 23–1. The Knickerbocker name stayed with the team even after it moved its base of operations to Elysian Fields in Hoboken in 1846. The baseball link may have prompted Casey Stengel to joyously exclaim, "It's great to be back as the manager of the Knickerbockers!" when he
270-531: The baggy part down the bottom of the leg like plus-fours and plus-sizes, and sometimes to the feet like trousers. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, and some Commonwealth nations, the term knickers is used for women's undergarments . Use of the term owes its origin to illustrator George Cruikshank , who did the illustrations for Washington Irving's droll History of New York when it was published in London. He showed
297-541: The club made the first all-woman team expedition to the Himalayas, made up of Monica Jackson , Evelyn McNicol and Elizabeth Stark , where they were the first to climb a 22,000-foot peak in the Jugal Himal which they named Gyalgen Peak . Since then many club expeditions have been made including: Greenland in 1970 &1998, regular Alpine trips since the mid 1990's, the Himalayas in 2000 and Bolivia in 2008. In 1958,
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#1732851998712324-644: The club was Mrs Inglis Clark while Lucy Smith was treasurer, Miss Inglis Clark was secretary, and Ruth Raeburn the librarian. In its first year, the club had fourteen members. Its equipment included alpine rope which had been fixed to the Cobbler and the Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh where the members trained. To qualify, members had to ascend four peaks of at least 3,000 feet with two snow climbs and two rock climbs. They then went on bold climbs of mountains such as
351-569: The early 1980s, media interest in the then-Lady Diana Spencer brought a brief commercial revival of the look in women's and unisex fashion both in Europe and North America, particularly among the "town and country", " New Romantic ", and " preppie " sets. By 1984, the style had waned as more top-heavy styles with snug pants rendered the style obsolete. In Japan , tobi trousers —similar to knickerbockers—are worn by construction workers, and their popular length has significantly increased over time, lowering
378-459: The era before World War I showing men wearing knickerbockers tucked into long socks. They remained fairly popular in Britain (where they were called "breeks" or "trews") in the years between World War I and World War II , but eventually were eclipsed in popularity by racing tights, even among the vast majority of cyclists who never raced. Invariably referred to as "knickers" in the US, they lived on as
405-487: The fictional author Diedrich Knickerbocker , an old-fashioned Dutch New Yorker in Irving's satire of chatty and officious local history. In fact, Washington Irving had a real friend named Herman Knickerbocker (1779–1855), whose name he borrowed. In turn, Herman Knickerbocker was of the upstate Knickerbocker clan, which descended from a single immigrant ancestor, Harmen Jansen van Wijhe Knickerbocker . Jansen van Wijhe invented
432-458: The final decision to call the team the "Knickerbockers" was made by the club's founder, Ned Irish . The team is now generally referred to as the Knicks. Knickerbockers have been popular in other sporting endeavors, particularly golf, rock climbing, cross-country skiing, fencing and bicycling. In cycling, they were standard attire for nearly 100 years, with the majority of archival photos of cyclists in
459-536: The first secretary made a speech upon the club's 50th anniversary as its president. Mabel Jeffrey was now married and brought her grandchildren to the celebrations at the site of the club's founding at the boulder at Lix Toll . In 2008, the centenary was celebrated with a party of the membership in period costume on top of the Beuckle. President Helen Steven recalled the youngest founder, "I knew Mabel and remember her as very warm, rosy-cheeked and welcoming – she came into
486-485: The name upon arriving in New Amsterdam and signed a document with a variant of it in 1682. After Irving's History , "Knickerbocker" had become by 1831 a local byword for an imagined old Dutch-descended New York aristocracy, their old-fashioned ways, their long-stemmed pipes, and knee-breeches long after the fashion had turned to slacks. (Such cultural heritage sprang almost entirely from Irving's imagination and became
513-469: The old-time Knickerbockers in their loose Dutch breeches, and by 1859, short loose ladies undergarments, a kind of abbreviated version of pantalettes or pantaloons , were knickers in England. Harry Collett wore knickerbockers when playing Tommy Stubbins , the virtuous apprentice to the title character of the 2020 film Dolittle . Louise Jameson wore knickerbockers when playing Leela , companion to
540-460: The popularity of the scouting movement whose uniform included shorts. Towards the end of this period, knickerbockers may have been more of a "fancy" dress item, for formal occasions, rather than everyday wear. At around 13 years, boys exchanged their knickerbockers for long trousers. Baseball players historically wore a stylized form of knickerbockers, although the pants have become less baggy in recent decades and some modern ballplayers opt to pull
567-571: The second was added in 1963—Milehouse Cottage near Kincraig . From these and other bases, numerous Scottish mountains were climbed and member Annie Hirst was the first woman to climb all the Munros —the 282 Scottish peaks higher than 3,000 feet. In 1928, a club expedition to the Alps was organised. Subsequent expeditions were made to other climbing regions abroad such as the Caucasus and Yosemite . In 1955,
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#1732851998712594-453: The trousers close to the ankles. The white knickerbocker-like pants worn by American football officials are a legacy of early football players wearing knickerbockers to play in. In recent years, the NFL has equipped its officials with long trousers rather than knickers in cold weather. The name "Knickerbocker" first acquired meaning with Washington Irving 's History of New York, which featured
621-630: Was founded in 1871 when some members of the Union Club became concerned that admission policies were not strict enough) and the New York Knicks , whose corporate name is the "New York Knickerbockers". The Knickerbocker name was an integral part of the New York scene when the Basketball Association of America granted a charter franchise to the city in the summer of 1946. As can best be determined,
648-599: Was killed in the First World War, Jane and William Inglis Clark funded the Charles Inglis Clark Memorial Hut on Ben Nevis, which opened in 1929. Archive footage shows mountaineers gathering on Ben Nevis for the opening ceremony. Ladies%27 Scottish Climbing Club The Ladies' Scottish Climbing Club was founded by Jane Inglis Clark , her daughter Mabel, and Lucy Smith at a boulder near Lix Toll , Perthshire in 1908. It now has about 120 members and
675-465: Was named pilot of the newborn New York Mets in 1961. Knickerbocker gave the name of the locally-brewed "Knickerbocker Beer" brewed by Jacob Ruppert and the first sponsors of the TV show Tonight! , hence the gossip columnist "Cholly Knickerbocker", the pen name of Igor Cassini , as well as the extremely high-toned Knickerbocker Club (still in a neo-Georgian mansion on Fifth Avenue at 62nd Street, which
702-766: Was proud to be a pioneer and was keen to encourage other women to take up mountaineering. Since women were not allowed to join the all-male Scottish Mountaineering Club , Inglis Clark, together with Lucy Smith and her daughter Mabel founded the Ladies Scottish Climbing Club in 1908. The Club's purpose was "to bring together Ladies who are lovers of mountain-climbing, and to encourage mountaineering in Scotland, in winter as well as in summer." Inglis Clark wrote about her mountaineering experiences in her book Pictures and Memories , published in 1938, which also commemorates women’s increased participation in climbing. There
729-570: Was secretary, but as women they were not allowed to join the all-male club. The Ladies' Alpine Club had been formed in London in 1907 and so, while sheltering by a large boulder at Lix Toll on 18 April 1908, the three decided to form a similar club in Scotland. A committee meeting was held in May which established the club's constitution and purpose: "to bring together Ladies who are lovers of mountain-climbing, and to encourage mountaineering in Scotland, in winter as well as in summer." The first president of
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