Dress Reform in the 19th Century
Homework Packet 4: The Bloomer Costume
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: Mrs. Kemble and Her New Costume

This article, written by Amelia Bloomer in response to criticisms against the well known actress Fanny Kemble's decision to wear the Bloomer costume, appeared in the dress reform publication The Lily on December 1, 1849.

There has been a great cry raised by the gentlemen from all quarters, about the male attire which Fanny Kemble is said to have adopted; and their fears seem to be exited, lest the ladies are going to contest their exclusive right to wear pantaloons. We have scarcely taken up a paper these two months but we have seen remarks on the subject, and we really gathered from them (though we never believed it) that several ladies of Lennox with Mrs. Kemble at their head, had actually paraded the streets, equipped in coats, vests and pantaloons, and all the other paraphernalia of a gentleman's dress. It turns out however, that the so much talked of, "man's clothes" which Mrs. Kemble has been guilty of putting on, is nothing more nor less than a loose flowing dress falling a little below the knees, and loose panteletts of drawers confined to the ancle [sic] by a band or cord. This shows how very sensitive gentlemen are in regard to any infringement on what they are pleased to consider their "rights." They need have no fears however on the subject, for we very much doubt whether even Mrs. Kemble could be willing to don their ugly dress. We wish they could be content with the right of dressing as they please, and not dictate to us what we shall or shall not wear. Every change in a lady's dress and even its color must be commented upon and criticized by the gentlemen of the press as though it were a subject of serious consideration for such superior beings as themselves to take action upon. We freely accord to them the right to their own peculiar dress, and we protest against the ladies trespassing on such rights; but at the same time we maintain that we have the right to control our own wardrobe; and when gentlemen undertake to arrange it for us they are very ill-mannered, and show that they are hard pressed for something to talk and write about.

Amelia Bloomer, "Mrs. Kemble and her New Costume," The Lily, 1 (December 1849), p. 94.

Reading #2: Reflections on Women's Dress

The following is an excerpt from an article published in the periodical Arena by Elizabeth Smith Miller in September of 1892.

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. After making this change I hastened to Seneca Falls to visit my cousin, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. We had so long deplored our common misery in the toils of crippling fashion, that this means of escape was hailed with joy, and she at once joined me in wearing the new costume. Mrs. Bloomer, a friend and neighbor of Mrs. Stanton, then adopted the dress; and as she was editing a paper in which she advocated it, the dress was christened with her name. Mrs. Stanton and I often exchanged visits, and sometimes traveled together. We endured, in carious places, much gaping curiosity and the harmless jeering of street boys…

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?"

The dress looked tolerably well in standing and walking, but in sitting it produced an awkward, uncouth effect. It was a perpetual violation of my love of the beautiful. So, by degrees, as my aesthetic sense gained the ascendancy, I lost sight of the great advantages of my dress—its lightness and cleanliness on the street, the ease and safety with which it allowed me to carry my babies up and down stairs, and its beautiful harmony with sanitary laws. The skirt was lengthened several inches and the trousers abandoned. As months passed, I proceeded in this retrograde movement, until, after a period of some seven years, I quite "fell from grace," and found myself again in the bonds of the old swaddling clothes—a victim to my "love of beauty."

In consideration of what I have previously said in regard to fashion, I feel at liberty to add that I do not wear a heavy trailing skirt, nor have I ever worn a corset; my bonnet shades my face; my spine was preserved from the "bustle": my feet from high heels; my shoulders are not turreted, nor has fashion clasped my neck with her choking collar.

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

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

Reading #3: Reminiscences by Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The following excerpt from the 1881 book History of Woman Suffrage was written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a key figure in the suffrage movement as well as an advocator of dress reform.

Quite an agitation occurred in 1852, on woman's costume. In demanding a place in the world of work, the unfitness of her dress seemed to some, an insurmountable obstacle. How can you, it was said, ever compete with man for equal place and pay, with garments of such frail fabrics and so cumbrously fashioned, and how can you ever hope to enjoy the same health and vigor with man, so long as the waist is pressed into the smallest compass, pounds of clothing hung on the hips, the limbs cramped with skirts, and with high heels the whole woman thrown out of her true equilibrium. Wise men, physicians, and sensible women, made their appeals, year after year; physiologists lectured on the subject; the press commented, until it seemed as if there were a serious demand for some decided steps, in the direction of a rational costume for women. The most casual observer could see how many pleasures young girls were continually sacrificing to their dress: In walking, running, rowing, skating, dancing, going up and down stairs, climbing trees and fences, the airy fabrics and flowing skirts were a continual impediment and vexation. We can not estimate how large a share of the ill-health and temper among women is a result of the crippling, cribbing influence of her costume. Fathers, husbands, and brothers, all joined in protest against the small waist, and stiff distended petticoats, which were always themes for unbounded ridicule. But no sooner did a few brave conscientious women adopt the bifurcated costume, an imitation in part of the Turkish style, than the press at once turned its guns on "The Bloomer," and the same fathers, husbands, and brothers, with streaming eyes and pathetic tones, conjured the women of their households to cling to the prevailing fashions. The object of those who donned the new attire, was primarily health and freedom; but as the daughter of Gerrit Smith introduced it just at the time of the early conventions, it was supposed to be an inherent element in the demand for political equality. As some of those who advocated the right of suffrage, wore the dress and had been identified with all the unpopular reforms, in the reports of our conventions, the press rung the changes on "strong-minded," "Bloomer," "free love," "easy divorce," "amalgamation." I wore the dress two years and found it a great blessing. What a sense of liberty I felt, in running up and down stairs with my hands free to carry whatsoever I would, to trip through the rain or snow with no skirts to hold or brush, ready at any moment to climb a hill-top to see the sun go down, or the moon rise, with no ruffles or trails to be limped by the dew, or soiled by the grass. What an emancipation from little petty vexatious trammels and annoyances every hour of the day. Yet such is the tyranny of custom, that to escape constant observation, criticism, ridicule, persecution, mobs, one after another gladly went back to the old slavery and sacrificed freedom to repose. I have never wondered since that the Chinese women allow their daughters' feet to be encased in iron shoes, nor that the Hindoo widows walk calmly to the funeral pyre. I suppose no act of my life ever gave my cousin, Gerrit Smith, such deep sorrow, as my abandonment of the "Bloomer costume." He published an open letter to me on the subject, and when his daughter, Mrs. Miller, three years after, followed my example, he felt that women had so little courage and persistence, that for a time he almost despaired of the success of the suffrage movement; of such vital consequence in woman's mental and physical development did he feel the dress to be.

"Reminiscences By E. C. S.," History of Woman Suffrage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, eds. (New York: Fowler and Wells, 1881), pp. 469-71; 864.

Guided Reading Questions

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

1. How does the author of the article view the situation? How does she feel about the attitudes of men and the press towards women's fashion?






2. Why was such a great outcry being raised against the clothing being worn by Fanny Kemble? What in fact, was she wearing?






3. According to Stanton, what were some of the reasons that women decided to reform their dresses? What changes did they make?






4. What was the reaction from the public and family members to the new costume and the ladies who wore it?






5. How did Stanton view the new dress? Why did she eventually give up the costume?






6. What problems did Miller have with long dresses? What changes did she make?






7. How did the public react to Miller's new attire? Her husband and family? How did she feel about her new dress? Why did she eventually abandon the costume?