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Bloomers, also called the bloomer, the Turkish dress, the American dress, or simply reform dress, are divided women's garments for the lower body. They were developed in the 19th century as a healthful and comfortable alternative to the heavy, constricting dresses worn by American women.
Amelia Jenks Bloomer (May 27, 1818 – December 30, 1894) was an American newspaper editor, women's rights and temperance advocate. Even though she did not create the women's clothing reform style known as bloomers, her name became associated with it because of her early and strong advocacy.
According to Valerie Steele, by the end of the 19th century, Parisian women were wearing bloomers more commonly than English and American women, probably because bloomers were presented as a fashionable item in France rather than a quasi-feminist statement, which fashion writers strongly disliked. [21]
One specific piece of clothing was the sporting pantaloon or the women's bloomer; [4] originally worn in America in the 1850s as a women's suffrage statement by Amelia Bloomer, it turned into the ideal costume for women riding bicycles - an activity that was considered acceptable for women to participate in during the late 19th century. This ...
Germany was a leading country of the Reformkleidung, 'dress reform' in the 19th century, as it was an integrated part of the great health reform movement Lebensreform, which spoke for a health reform in clothing for both women and men supported by medical professionals and scientists such as Gustav Jaeger and Heinrich Lahmann, and freedom from ...
In the United States, bloomers were more intended for exercise than fashion. The rise of American women's college sports in the 1890s created a need for more unencumbered movement than exercise skirts would allow. By the end of the decade, most colleges that admitted women had women's basketball teams, all outfitted in bloomers. [5]
Born Lydia Sayer near the hamlet of Bellvale, New York, she was the daughter of Rebecca (Forshee) Sayer and Benjamin Sayer, a farmer and distiller. [2] [3] [4]In 1849, she adopted the then-radical style of clothing known as the bloomer or reform dress — an adaptation of Turkish pantaloons with a knee-length overskirt.
1897 advertisement in The Graphic for Elliman's Universal Embrocation (manufactured in Slough), showing a relatively early example of an ordinary non-sea-bathing Western woman appearing skirtless in public (wearing "rationals" or "knickerbockers" or "bloomers" for bicycle-riding). The whole outfit (top and bottom) was known as a "bicycle suit".