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[[File:Skythian_archer_plate_BM_E135_by_Epiktetos.jpg|thumbnail|200px|left|Scythian archer drawing an arrow from his quiver as he turns to shoot at the enemy. Shown wearing pants. Inscriptions in small and neat letters: to the left of the figure: Επικτετος; on his right: εγρασφεν (sic). Interior from an Attic red-figured plate. From Vulci. Between 520 and 500 BCE]]

This definition helps to differentiate from the earlier leggings that were often pieces of cloth or skins wrapped around the legs and then tied on with straps. Leggings were comprised of two separate garments. Ötzil the Ice Man, perhaps the most famous archaeological find of prehistoric human remains from the northern regions, was wearing leggings.

From archaeological evidence, it is known that the earliest types of clothing were wrapped skirts or aprons for both genders. The oldest known woven example is a fragment made from woven reeds found in Armenia and approximately 2900 BCE. While this is just a fragment the construction hints at what the complete style would have looked like with a waistband woven in the opposite direction from the skirt. This is likely stylistically based on earlier versions made from hides that do not survive modern times.

== Did the Domestication of horses led to Pants? ==

After the Romans accepted pants, they became a more standard mode of dress across the Western world. As centuries went on, it became those who did not wear pants who stood out, such as Scottish soldiers who wore kilts into battle up into the 20th century. Even as in previous civilizations, pants had served as a designator of completing a specific task for the upper class of later Western civilizations. They serve to show modernity and how the wearer fits the mold of masculinity. By being prepared to carry out physical activities and not constrained by tight clothing or billowing robes, new fashions showed a change in the cultural mindset as to what was appropriate for these men to accomplish. To show how this change occurred, it helps to look at the specific cases of Imperial Russia and Regency England.<ref>Mila Contini, Fashion, from ancient Egypt to the present day (New York: Odyssey Press, 1965), 183.</ref>

As part of a mission to drag Russia into what he viewed as the modern world, Peter the Great issued a decree, in 1701, on modern clothing stating that upper-class men were to follow these guidelines concerning attire - “The upper dress shall be of French or Saxon cut, and the lower dress and underwear-[including] waistcoat, trousers, boots, shoes, and hats- shall be of the German type.” This replaced the previous style of floor-length caftans.

On the other hand, Brummell's style brought to the forefront with both its looser long trousers and flat boots and shoes allowed the wearer to participate in more activities matching a social change in the concept of masculinity. He also preferred dark colors, normally black with a white shirt, over the bright colors worn previously. This style was adopted by upper-class men and became the norm for western society through to the modern-day.<ref>Brian Dillon, "Inventory/A Poet of Cloth," <i> Cabinet</i>, Spring 2006.</ref>

The development of pants allowed for a greater range of freedom and movement. While this initially was just for the warrior and lower classes, specifically the males in many societies, over history, the wearing of pants has come to symbolize not only a necessity of movement (as seen when worn by warriors or working peasants) but the choice to be active and to enjoy physical freedoms. Wearing pants showed cultural and societal changes in the ideas of what is masculine and what is feminine and what is expected of all members of society.