Why nineteenth-century women traded heavy, floor-dragging skirts for the scandalous, liberating Turkish dress
In short: In the 1850s, a simple change in women's attire sparked a national craze and a fierce cultural battle. By rejecting restrictive corsets and heavy, straw-stiffened petticoats for a two-piece outfit featuring trousers, women challenged male authority, claimed physical freedom, and became a potent, if controversial, symbol of the suffrage movement.
The bloomer, originally known as the 'reform costume' or 'American dress,' emerged in late 1849 as a health-conscious alternative to the era's standard fashion. The prevailing style required women to wear skirts that dragged on the floor, supported by layers of starched, horsehair-stiffened petticoats and whale-bone corsets. Readers of the Water-Cure Journal, a health periodical, began experimenting with pantaloons inspired by Turkish styles to allow for unrestricted movement. By 1851, the garment had gained national attention, with newspapers dubbing it after Amelia Bloomer, who promoted the style in her journal, The Lily.
The garment was far more than a fashion choice; it was a political statement. As women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone adopted the dress, it became inextricably linked to the fight for women's rights. Critics, including the orthodox clergy, viewed the adoption of pants—a traditionally male garment—as a direct usurpation of authority. The backlash was severe: women were ridiculed in cartoons, denied church membership, and disparaged as 'male impersonators.' Fearing that the controversy over their clothing was distracting from the core suffragist cause, many prominent activists abandoned the style after three years, returning to conventional dress.
Despite the retreat of its most famous advocates, the bloomer persisted in various forms. During the Civil War, nurses like Dr. Mary E. Walker wore the reform dress in military hospitals and field service. Interest saw a major resurgence in the 1890s, when the bloomer became the standard 'bicycle dress' for women. By the 20th century, the term evolved, eventually referring to athletic wear in schools—notably in Japan, where the style persisted into the early 2000s—and eventually to various forms of undergarments. What began as a radical act of liberation in 1849 ultimately reshaped the boundaries of acceptable dress for women.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Bloomers
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