Dress Reform in the 19th Century
Homework Packet 1: Dress Reform for Health and Hygiene
by Jennifer Erbach

Introduction | Reading #1 | Reading #2 | Reading #3 | Guided Reading Questions

Introduction

Among the many reform movements of the nineteenth century was a movement to reform women's style of dress. The fashionable long skirts made with yards of heavy material, tight corsets used to create an hourglass shape, and high-heeled shoes were all blamed for poor health in women. In the 1850s the first wave of the dress reform movement began among members of the women's suffrage movement. Some of these women adopted a costume that came to be known as the "Bloomer" or "Turkish" costume. It consisted of a short, loosely draped dress over very loose pantaloons. The use of the dress was not very widespread and eventually died out, as even the reformers returned to their old styles of dressing.

Dress reform again found a voice in the 1870s and 1880s with activists such as Frances Willard, the president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Willard spoke out against the physical and moral damage done by wearing fashionable corsets, heavy skirts, and evening gowns that showed off the bust and arms.

Directions:

Look over the page of guided reading questions and then read through the documents in this packet. After you are finished, go back and answer the questions in 1-3 complete sentences. Write down any questions you may have and bring them to class with you. Be prepared to summarize what you've read for your classmates!

Reading #1: A Parody

This spoof of the famous soliloquy from Hamlet appeared in The Water Cure Journal, a publication that supported dress reform, on June 15, 1853.

To breathe, or not to breathe; that's the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer,
The stings and arrows of outrageous fashion,
Or to bear the scoffs and ridicule of those
Who despise the Bloomer dresses.

In agony
No more?—and, by a dress to say we end
The side-ache, and the thousand self-made aches,
Which those are heir to, who, for mere fashion,
Will dress so waspish.

To live—to breathe—
To breathe—perchance to gasp; ay, there's the rub,—
For in the Bloomer dress what comforts come
When we have shuffled off the tight-made dress,
Must give us ease. There's the reason
That makes sad havoc of so long life.
For, who would bear the ills and pains of self,
While laced upright in stays or whalebone,
The rules of fashion—except to make a form—
By the Creator made more fashionable;
When she herself, for health, might comfort take
By dressing loosely?

Willing those there are,
Under a painful life to groan and sweat,
For fear of being ridiculed.
And thus they bear the ills they have, than fly
To comforts which they know not of.
Thus ridicule does make cowards of them all:
And so the natural hue of countenance
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of disease;
To good advice pay no regard. And thus
They lose the bliss of health.

MATTIE

Mattie, "A Parody," Water-Cure Journal, 15 (June 1853), p. 132.

Reading #2: Dress and Vice

The following is part of a series of lectures given by Woman's Christian Temperance Union President Frances Willard. Willard advocated changes in dress on a more modest scale than the Bloomer costume worn by women in the reform movements of the 1850s.

…Meanwhile let that mother know who tricks out her little girl in all the colors of the rainbow; puts rings on her fingers if not "bells on her toes"; binds her at an early age into a corset; sets her to wallowing in a long skirt and tilts the vital organs at the invalid-angle by high heeled shoes, that she has deliberately deformed a body that came fresh and fair from God's hand, and manacled a soul that was made in His image.

* * *

Happily, there is a steady progress toward better things. Science is the great renovator and women are now students of its sacred revelations. Three fourths of the teachers and graduates from our public schools are of the so-called weaker sex. If only the fittest have here survived, there is a prophecy that they shall yet become the stronger, in mind at least. Nearly one-half the children in these schools are now under instruction about the laws of health. They are learning that any ligature imposed upon the body anywhere, and most of all upon the yielding cartilages of the waist, means displacement and inflammation. But when that inflammation and displacement relate to the vital organs therein located, a ligature means physical pain and ruin to the one who wears the compress and to her children. When these causes have been thus universally taught for a generation, the present compressed waist will disappear and the flowing outlines of Greek art will come, and come to stay. Already women are awakening to the facts of their physical well-being. In a club in Chicago led by "ladies of society" just home from their summer's outing by seaside, mountain and forest, and having freshly in mind the gymnastic suits in which they had walked and climbed, a rising vote was lately taken, and unanimously carried, on the motion that they would not wear trailing skirts, no matter what the dressmakers might say. In a recent number of The New York Graphic Mrs. Jenness-Miller's rational costumes for women are depicted with most appreciative commentary. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' book, "What to Wear," is being newly read and its noble philosophy of this great subject pondered. In my own town a lovely housekeeper is about to present the subject to a group of sympathizing friends among leaders of society. The White Ribbon women as a class dress with notable simplicity. The invisible vestments of all women who have even a gleam of good sense, have, within ten years, made marked progress toward compliance with nature's laws. The Flint waist, instead of corsets; the combination suits of flannel and cotton; the long hose fastened from the waist, with leggings and arctics for cold weather, are all invaluable ameliorations of our lot. Common sense shoes are now for sale at all reputable shops and comfortable cloaks have become "fashionable." The most precious part of the system is still the most unprotected, and foolish bonnets put a premium upon the American woman's pet disease — neuralgia. Many ladies wear gymnastic suits when about their work at home and on vacation, which redeems a goodly fraction of their time from the evil days of bondage to long skirts.

It is a legitimate part of our temperance and social purity work to take away the reproach that justly falls upon women in these days for their ignorant and sinful disregard of nature's laws regarding their own health, and their thoughtless addition to the temptations of men by their manner of dress. The theater and the house whose pleasures take hold on death must cease to crack the whip of fashion over the head of virtuous womanhood. We must assert our own independent dignity. Our duty in the case is immediate, and may well be all-engrossing when we consider manhood's point of view in addition to our own. The following ingenuous letter which I recently received from a young man at the East, is commended to the candid reflection of all women, especially those who, like its author, are in the morning of life:

DEAR LADY: — It may seem presumptuous for an unknown and ignorant laddie like me to address you, but I have applied to several others for help and found none. I take the Witness, Pioneer and Laws of Life, and have seen some of your protests against that great crime so many women commit, viz: lacing. In this community we have a lodge of Good Templars which has held weekly meetings for eighteen years, and girls who are members of the order and take part in the exercises stand on a platform, and with blood filled with impurities from imperfect circulation and faces covered with pimples caused by lacing, urge the boys not to poison their blood with alcohol, and ridicule the red nose of the toper. We have also a Society of Christian Endeavor, and young women with breath and usefulness shortened one-half by corsets, attend the prayer-meetings of the society and say they are trying to serve the Lord, and pray that they may be enabled to do His will in all things. The boys of this place are a strong, healthy, tough and wiry set; but oh, the girls! Pale, pinched faces, and languid steps; forms created in God's own image cruelly deformed and distorted into hideous monstrosities to make men shudder and angels weep; unfit for wives because incapable of becoming the mothers of healthy children. What young man of sense wants to marry a dressmaker's lay-figure, or a bundle of aches and pains wrapped up in fancy dry goods? One of my friends — a fine young man with no poison habits — did marry one of them. Five short years have passed away and where is his family? Two little graves in the village cemetery and a wife who is a physical wreck, may tell the story. Now can you not write a leaflet that will bring to bear upon this subject physiology, theology and common sense and which can be scattered broadcast among the young women of the country, especially those of the W.C.T.U.? Think of this. It is the Master's work. He bids me write to you. Yours truly,
JOHN ———.

The young man from Vermont is right. Criticisms upon the habits of our brothers come with poor grace from those whose own sins against God's laws written in their members fill as many graveyards as do the tobacco and alcohol habits. For myself, I saw this early in my temperance apostleship and discarded corsets and high heeled shoes — two pets of my benighted youth, — adopted a more hygienic way of living in nearly all regards, and am slowly moving onward toward a better understanding of Christianity applied to the toilet, the table and all the daily conduct of life.

Willard, Frances. "Dress and Vice" available online on Illinois During the Gilded Age.

Reading #3: Reflections on Women's Dress

Writing for the publication Arena in 1892, Elizabeth Smith Miller looked back on the dress reform movement of the mid-nineteenth century and her own involvement in dress reform.

The subjections of woman to the fashion that demands tight waists and heavy, trailing skirts, is a matter of grave importance, involving not only her own well-being, but that of generations of men and women who shall succeed her. It is universally admitted that compressing the waist forces breathing into the upper part of the lungs and causes displacement and disease in the pelvic region. The skirt is hazardous from its weight; and when bedraggled with wet and mud, and the usual concomitants of street sweepings, it is often the case of colds to which the poor abused lungs readily succumb. It is said, too, that in brushing these scavenger skirts, the system may be poisoned by inhaling the dried germs which float from them. The arguments against these fashions are countless, and none can be offered in their favor; and yet the mass of women cling to them, even at the sacrifice of comfort, cleanliness, and health. The Paris dressmaker, who is the standard for the dressmakers of all civilized nations, says, as she adjusts the tight waist: "Il faut souffrir pir être belle. [1]" Women say: "We might as well be out of the world as out of the fashion." The Chinese woman of noble birth has the same opinion in regard to the fashion which cramps and distorts her feet. She justly remarks, however, on examining American fashion plates: "China woman pinch foot. You say China woman velly bad. Melican woman pinch here (laying her hand on her waist). Life here; life not in foot. Melican woman much more bad than China woman…"

…In the spring of 1851, while spending many hours at work in the garden, I became so thoroughly disgusted with the long skirt, that the dissatisfaction, the growth of years, suddenly ripened into the decision that this shackle should no longer be endured. The resolution was at once put into practice. Turkish trousers to the ankle, with a skirt reaching some four inches below the knee, were substituted for the heavy, untidy, exasperating old garment…

…I wore the short dress and trousers for many years, my husband being at all times and in all places my staunch supporter. My father gave the dress his full approval, and I was also blessed by the tonic of Mrs. Stanton's inspiring words: "The question is no longer, rags, how do you look? but woman, how do you feel?"

…All hail to the day when we shall have a reasonable and beautiful dress, that shall encourage exercise on the road and in the field; that shall leave us the free use of our limbs; that shall help and not hinder our perfect development.

ELIZABETH SMITH MILLER.

1. "It is necessary to suffer to be beautiful."

Elizabeth Smith Miller, "Reflections on Woman's Dress, and the Record of a Personal Experience," Arena (September 1892), pp. 491-95.

Guided Reading Questions

Directions: Answer the following in 1-3 complete sentences.

1. Look at the "Parody" poem. What are some of the physical problems that 'Mattie' claims come from wearing fashionable clothing?






2. How does Frances Willard believe that a mother can 'deform' her little girl's body?






3. What lessons about the effects of fashionable dress on the human body did Willard claim that women were learning? What progress does she see being made in reforming women's fashions?






4. What does the letter from 'John' tell us about health problems that were related to wearing corsets and other fashionable clothing?






5. How does women's dress affect their efforts in other social movements such as temperance?






6. According to Elizabeth Smith Miller, how do the current fashions harm (or contribute to harming) women's health? Does the Chinese woman quoted by Miller consider American fashion better or worse than the Chinese custom of binding women's feet? Why or why not?






7. What changes did Miller make in her style of dressing? What are her hopes for women's fashions in the future?






8. Did anything surprise or interest you in these passages? Do you have any questions? Use the space below to note these things down.