Vintage cowhide snap button pants

These pants have the same feel as a Native Indian dress I once seen and felt, not saying this is Native Indian but material feels the same, maybe cured cowhide to make it soft.

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone knew what kind of pants these where made for , no labels anywhere so, possibly handmade .

Thank You

Billy D.

 

It does look like brain tanned leather. Custom made bell bottoms from the '60s?

 

Cool, I wish they where worn by someone on soultrain tv show

 

I'm sure that 2manybooks knows better than I do but . . . I'll throw out one more idea -- could the material possibly be "chamois"?

cham·ois
Dictionary result for chamois
noun

1. 1.
   an agile goat-antelope with short hooked horns, found in mountainous areas of Europe from Spain to the Caucasus.
2. 2.
   a type of soft pliable leather now made from sheepskin or lambskin.

???????????

 

Scovill has been making snaps for over 60 years,so that won't help much in dating.

 

Could be chamois. Both are essentially oil tanned, with the grain layer removed. It can be difficult to determine species when the grain is removed. (If the grain is intact, the hair follicle pattern can be diagnostic.) Native brain tanned leather was usually deer, elk, or buffalo, which often can be distinguished by their thickness. Chamois or sheep would be comparatively thin. And cow can be split to produce a thinner skin.

 

I thought bell bottoms were more 1970s.

 

I think chamois is a bit too delicate for trousers.

There were a few years in the 70s when those bell bottoms with a row of snap buttons instead of a zipper were fashionable. Can't remember when exactly. I probably tried too hard to erase it from my memory.

 

Are the snaps plain metal or do they some sort of glass/plastic cab? Having trouble sorting what I'm seeing.

EDIT: doesn't matter a whole lot. They've been making the pearl ones for too long, the info won't help with dating.

 

There was a lot of chamois clothing being made in the 1960s (which mostly happened in the 1970s.)

Debora

 

Chamois was used for undergarments, too. Just thought I'd share an A&F pair that I thought were older breeches but turned out to be a 1940s pair of chamois leather long johns! (They are ankle-length.)

 

There's chamois leather and chamois cloth. This L.L. Bean chamois cloth shirt featured on the brand's web site is actually made of flannel.

https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/651...amois-cloth-shirt-slim-fit&bc=12-26-589&csp=f

It's based on this Bean vintage shirt.



Debora

 

Forgot to mention, the Scovill website states they invented the Gripper snap in 1930.

 

I wish I had a pair of those for these last few sub-zero days.

 

I would guess chamois too. They look like 60s-70s hippy dippy pants to me too. Chamois was used for pretty much all clothing. Somewhere in some closet (don’t ask) are an 80s Ralph Lauren chamois skirt and shirt. Mine are definitely 80s as I bought them new at RL. The problem with chamois is that they are all splits and the elasticity of leather comes from the leather side, not the suede side so it is relatively fragile and not a material to wear fitted as they will split. Cool pants and love those A & F long johns which I’d wear as pants as long as they were loose enough.Someone should remake those!

 

Thanks everybody for all your input, even the funny ones.

 

U bring us funny items....you get funny replies !!!

 

haha, that's cool