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Many explanations have already been suggested here for the phenomenon of bloused socks:
-warding off ticks
-keeping warm
-holding up loose socks
-keeping muddy cuffs from swinging around
I may have thought of another possibility.
Period fashion called for pants to reach from the natural waist to the bottom of the ankle. However military clothes are not known for their tailored fit but rather are sized to fit the average man, the range of sizes scaled up with height and width proportionally. Thus when a man’s height and weight are out of proportion the clothes no longer fit well. As a tall, thin fellow with a period sized uniform I have two options- bare ankles or my shirt sticking out of a gap between my trowsers (which are down on my hips to make them cover my ankles) and jacket. Either way I end up looking like a scarecrow.
Might not a third alternative be to stick my trowser cuffs into my socks, resembling perhaps a pair of gaiters or a continental soldier? It would certainly look better than the other alternatives. This would work not only for the lanky, but any one who got stuck with an ill-fitting uniform. Not that every soldier would be so fastidious about his appearance, just a possibility.
-warding off ticks
-keeping warm
-holding up loose socks
-keeping muddy cuffs from swinging around
I may have thought of another possibility.
Period fashion called for pants to reach from the natural waist to the bottom of the ankle. However military clothes are not known for their tailored fit but rather are sized to fit the average man, the range of sizes scaled up with height and width proportionally. Thus when a man’s height and weight are out of proportion the clothes no longer fit well. As a tall, thin fellow with a period sized uniform I have two options- bare ankles or my shirt sticking out of a gap between my trowsers (which are down on my hips to make them cover my ankles) and jacket. Either way I end up looking like a scarecrow.
Might not a third alternative be to stick my trowser cuffs into my socks, resembling perhaps a pair of gaiters or a continental soldier? It would certainly look better than the other alternatives. This would work not only for the lanky, but any one who got stuck with an ill-fitting uniform. Not that every soldier would be so fastidious about his appearance, just a possibility.