November 16, 2018 • 46 mins
The hosts of Dressed: The History of Fashion stop by to discuss bloomerism, feminism, and the lasting impact of the bloomer movement. It'll knock the pants off you.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, this is Annie and you're listening to stuff I've
never told you. And today I am joined by not
one but to guest co host Cassidy Zachary and April Callahan.
Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you,
(00:29):
We're happy to be here. You host. The podcast addressed
the history of fashion, which is all about the history
and stories behind the clothes that we wear and listeners,
if you haven't checked it out, I highly recommended. But
this makes them the perfect folks to talk about our
topic today, bloomerism and uh of note it's Halloween the
(00:51):
day we record this, so it's appropriate for me because
one of the first costumes I ever wore involved bloomers
and I would like to say I had to do
with bloomerism and that I was a feminist from a
very young age, but that would be a lie. I
think it was mini mouse related costume. Well we've come
full circle, yes, so let's let's dive right in. What
(01:14):
is bloomerism um? Casts I'll go ahead and start if
I may. Um. Bloomerism Um It was a dress reform
movement that began in the middle of the nineteenth century,
which really centered around rethinking women's dress UM for both
reasons of health and also comfort, and specifically it focused
(01:34):
on the adoption of pantal loons UM. And these pantaloons
were given the moniker of Bloomers because they were named
after one of their main proponents, who was a million
Jenks Bloomer, and she was the editor and publisher of
a really really early feminist newspaper called The Lily UM.
And what I think is so fascinating about Bloomerism is
(01:54):
that it's this intersection of how the first wave of
American feminists dealt with the topic of fashion dress starting
around eighteen fifty eighteen fifty one. Yeah, when I was
researching into this and I typed in Bloomerism and google
um it some places I saw to find it as
(02:15):
feminism as a type of feminism, which was pretty cool.
And if we if we look at the players here,
some of the key people involved in this story, they
are big ones in the history of feminism, right, yeah, absolutely, yeah,
And so you have Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
and of course Amelia Bloomer who all adopted this style. UM.
(02:38):
But before we really talk about Bloomers, and it's significance
within the women's right movement, I really think we probably
should talk about the movement itself. So in eighteen forty eight,
a woman by the name of Lucretia Mott, her sister
Martha Coffin right, and Elizabeth Caddy stand all organized what
was the first Women's Right Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. UM.
(02:59):
But actually the sea for their feminism was late or
later years earlier in their personal experiences. So just to
give our listeners an idea of what life was like
for women at this time. For Lucretia Mott, for instance,
as a young woman, prior to her marriage, she was
a teacher and this was a position she was quite
proud of until she found out that her male counterparts
(03:19):
were making exponentially more money than her. Still sounds familiar, um,
And so that kind of sparked her interests in women's equality,
in women's rights. And I think April, you can speak
to Elizabeth's experience as a young woman as yeah. Yeah,
So you know, I feel like all these women have
(03:40):
very distinct and separate origin stories, you know, like how
they came to the cause of women's rights. And Elizabeth
Caddy standing story was particularly interesting to me, um, because
it all started when she was a teenager and she
was presidents of a local girls club or young women's club,
and this group of young women or girls they decided
(04:01):
that they wanted to raise funds to help pay for
the tuition of a promising young man who wanted to
attend seminary school that lived in their town. So they
did all sorts of things. They helped bake sales, they
made and sold jam, they organized concerts, you know, and
they basically, you know, contributed significantly to paying for his tuition.
(04:22):
And then when he finally graduated, they made him a
brand new suit, and they invited him to come to
their congregation and address the church. UM. But you know,
instead of acknowledging their efforts in any way, shape or
form or thanking them, basically, he opened up with this
verse from the Bible chapter If Timothy that essentially says,
but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor usurp
(04:45):
the authority over the man, but to be in silence. So,
I mean, this was a huge slab in the face
to these young women. UM. And understandably, Elizabeth was furious.
She got up, stormed out of the church, and the
rest of her friend followed, and she she really cites
this incident as as the moment that she became motivated
(05:09):
to really look into the lack of parity between men
and women, and and she goes on to become one
of the key figures in igniting the women's rights movement. Yeah,
and for Amelia Bloomer, who will learn more about in
a minute two, she remembers being a sixteen year old
girl and witnessing her elderly neighbor being evicted from her
home after her husband died because her entire estate, or
(05:32):
his entire state, was left to his only living heir,
who was a long distance male cousin who this woman
had never met. Um And because at this time, women
could not hold property, they could not vote, They were
basically second class citizens combined to these very defined roles
of wife and mother. And so Lucretia and Elizabeth, for instance,
(05:53):
they meet for the first time in eighteen forty at
the World Anti Slavery Convention in London. And just a
little about Lacresia mo because she's this incredible woman, she's
gifted and respected American Quaker preacher. And it should be
noted that in the Quaker religion, men and women are
regarded as equal, so they're really ahead of their time
at this point. Um. And Lucretia and her husband were
(06:15):
vocal and active abolitionists in America, and she was so
well respected in this community, in fact, that she was
sent to this national conference in London as one of
only six women. And it's here that she meets Elizabeth
Caddy Stand because she and her husband were also abolitionists.
There's a lot of crossover between the early feminist movements
and the abolitionist movements and the temperance movements too. Yeah,
(06:37):
people who are really enlightened at this point. Um. So
these women are in London for this very important cause
in which they had worked and advocated for tirelessly, and
what happens well, the male delegate has been the entire day,
the first day debating about whether or not women should
(06:58):
even be allowed to attend the conference, much less speak
or vote in the proceedings. And the conclusion is to
keep these women. They can be there, but they have
to sit in silence behind a curtain. So, I mean,
this is women's place, right in the shadows of their husbands,
to live in silence and servitude to the role that
they're born in. So UM I mean this to say,
(07:21):
this experience really endeared Lucretia and Elizabeth to one another,
and it's further cemented their beliefs that women were being
denied their God given rights. And in the quote most
shocking and unnatural event ever recorded in the history of
womanity end quote. This is a contemporary quote. By the
way happened. And of course this is the first Women's
(07:41):
Right Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York. And uh
it's at this two day conference that the famous Declaration
of Sentiments document was signed by sixty women and thirty
two men. And this is a document that was authored
by Elizabeth Stanton, and it was essentially a redrafting of
the Declaration of Independence, UM, which quote, we hold these
truths to be self evident that all men and women
(08:04):
are created equal. And it basically advocated for women's equality
and more specifically to their right to own property and
most controversially, to their right to vote. And of the
three people in attendance was Amelia Bloomer. Uh. And out
of all of this kind of comes a lot of
different things. UM. Amelia had already been involved in the
(08:27):
Women's Temperance Movement or the Temperance movement in New York
for anybody who doesn't know what temperance was. Basically, it
was a movement um advocating for the abstinence from alcohol
because drunkenness was considered a problem in the domestic home.
And this was a pretty big movement at the time. UM.
And so when Amelia decides to form in New York
(08:49):
State Women's Temperance Society, that goes hand in hand. They
felt like they needed a platform for their voice, so
they found this publication called The Lily, which was a
really really early feminist newspaper and cast, do you want
to talk a little bit more about that, because I
think I think you have some research on that. Yeah.
So on January one, eighty nine, The Lily was published
(09:12):
for the first time. And this is one of the first,
if not the first newspapers in America for women and
made by women, and Amelia was its editor um from
the beginning. But according to her, even before this first
issue came out, the society had gave up the enterprise
altogether because they weren't really prepared for what it entailed.
They're kind of disillusioned by the time it's first printing happened,
(09:34):
so Amelia was unabated, and she writes, as the editor
of the paper, I threw myself into the work. I
assumed the entire responsibility, took the entire charge editorially and financially,
and carried it successfully through so Um. In the first issue,
she writes, it is women that speaks through the Lily,
and temperance is a great foe to her peace and happiness.
(09:55):
It is that, above all that has made her home
desolate and biggered her offspring. Surely she has a right
to wield her pen for its suppression. Surely she may,
without throwing aside the modest refinements which so much become
her sex, use her influence to lead her fellow mortals
from the destroyer's path. And it's really here where Amelia
begins publishing a few years later, her support for dress
(10:17):
reform in the form of this practical two piece garment. Right.
And this is a lot of the women we've been
talking about. They were involved in writing for the Lily, Right, Yeah,
Elizabeth Cady stanton Um was kind of one of the
first people to broach the subject of dress reform in
the pages of The Lily. Um she did right under
(10:39):
a pseudonym um Sunflower. Her father was a congressman and
wasn't necessarily particularly happy about his daughter's work in in
in the women's rights movement, but um so, she was
writing for the paper. She's kind of the first one
that starts addressing questions like why are our clothes so
(11:01):
hard to fasten? Like why do we have to have
someone help us dress whereas men don't. Um So, these
ideas were already kind of like burgeoning and on the
surface within the pages of The Lily, even before Elizabeth's cousin,
whose name was Libby Miller, came to visit in eighteen fifty.
And this is a really critical moment because when her
(11:22):
cousin Libby shows up, she's wearing Bloomer costume, or what
we now call bloomer costume. So she's wearing a traveling
outfit that was said to be a black satin um
and the skirt, which the typical skirts at the time
of course, swept the ground. The hem of the skirt
had been um shortened about one foot to about five
inches below the knee, and beneath that she had on
(11:45):
what we're kind of called Turkish trousers, so they were
kind of wide legged pantaloons that matched her dress. UM.
But it's this appearance of Libby that really kind of
changes things. UM. Elizabeth and Amilia are both thrilled. They
think this is brilliant UM, and they both adopt the
costume and UM. In one Amelia actually publishes a woodcut
(12:11):
of herself wearing the style and advocates for it in
the pages of The Lily. And this is the moment
where things blow up. Yeah, Bloomers caused quite the stir
when they when they started to take off, and we're
going to talk about that, but before we get into it,
we're going to pause for a quick break for word
from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you, sponsor. So yeah,
(12:43):
let's let's talk a little bit about um, the reaction
to Bloomers, and also some of these other things going
on at the same time that influenced this Bloomerism movement. Yeah. So,
I think I think the first thing is that we
have to understand why dress reform was even considered an
(13:03):
issue of women's rights at this time. In order to
do that, you have to understand what women were wearing
in the eighteen fifties. Um. You know, the fashion people
silhouette was highly restrictive, um, you know, next to their skin.
The first layer, women would have been wearing a layer
of undergarments, either kind of a chemise slip or a
little what's called a chamizette or it's kind of like
a cammy and little knickers that came down to the knee, um.
(13:26):
And these were usually cotton or linen, and then over
that would be worn a tightly laced corset. But that's
when all the petticoats start to get piled on, and
I mean layers and layers of petticoats, like six seven,
eight layers, um. And at least one of these was
probably stiffened by crane or horse hair and the yeah,
(13:47):
I know, itchy, right. But the reason that all of
these layers were worn was to create this volume, um,
in order to support these bell shaped silhouette skirts that
were super fashionable during this time period. And it's only
after piling on all these clothes that a woman would
then put on her dress over all of these layers
(14:09):
beneath um, you know. And this was really the dress
of all American women at this time, regardless of class.
Or social status. I mean that the fineness of the
costuness costliness of your clothes would would be a factor
and would change. But this silhouette was expected of all women,
you know. And and you can imagine this is neither
comfortable or practical. Um. And when you add to the
(14:30):
fact that the fashionable bodices and sleeves of the era
were extremely tight and fitted, you can really understand how
their range of physical movement was was very much inhibited.
You know, they're wearing like fifteen pounds of petticoats, a
tightly laced corset, you know. And and and the way
that the bodices were constructed a lot of times it
made it difficult for women to even raise their arms,
(14:53):
you know. And the reason that petticoats really become the
focus of bloomerism um is because that they did sweep
the ground um. And because of that, they were just
downright unhealthy. You know, they were dragging up dirt, they're
dragging out mud like whatever to try to us was
in the streets or the fields was living on the
inside of your skirt. Um. And you know, of course,
(15:16):
the nature of laundry is not as it is today.
Everything was washed by hand. Um. So, so women felt
truly hampered by the dress of the era that society
expected of them. But you know what, what was the
alternative at this time? Yeah, and so it's really easy
to see why women might want a little bit of
relief from these cumbersome undergarments, these cumbers some garments. And
(15:39):
Amelia at one point wrote, quote, common sense teaches us
that the dress which is the most convenient and best
adapted to our needs is the proper dress dress for
both men and women. So she also goes on to say,
we do not advocate the same style of dress altogether
for both sexes, and should be sorry to see women
dressed just like men. Yet we should like to see
a radical reform. And when's costume so that she might
(16:01):
be the free, healthy being God made her instead of
the corseted, crippled, dragged down creature her slavery to clothes
has made. So it was Amelia Bloomer who would become
most famously associated with the trousers. As April said, she
was um really a well known activist. She traveled and
lectured extensively wearing this costume. But um, as mentioned, she
(16:22):
began to wear the costume after um Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and had worn it influenced by her cousin Libby Miller,
but Libby Miller herself was not also the first woman
to wear it. Um. This style of pant was also
known as Turkish trousers because they were patterned after those
worn by women in the Middle East, and really this
fascination with the exotic East led to their adoption by
(16:44):
European and American women as fancy dress costume in the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and by the early nineteenth
century women were wearing large baggy pants as sportswear and
European sanitariums, and in America in particular, these similar pants
ensembles were being worn by women at water care establishments.
So the water care movement was this interesting movement of
(17:07):
the nineteenth century that championed the Three physicians, water, exercise,
and diet. But this form of costume was also being
worn at these American religious and utopian communities, something I
found particularly interesting. So there's this community of equality and
New Harmony Indiana, but there's also the Oneida community, which
was founded by John Humphrey Noye's in New York, um
(17:30):
in eighteen forty eight, and he actually writes that women's
dress is a standing lie. It proclaims that she is
not a two legged animal, but something like a churn
standing on castors. When the distinction of the sexes is
reduced to the bounds of nature and decency, a dress
will be adopted that will be the same or nearly
the same for both sexes. So women in that community
(17:51):
had adopted this um dress and pant ensemble, and a
couple of sources have suggested that Libby Miller perhaps had
seen these women wearing this ensemble and then that that
was why she decided to adopt it herself. Yeah, it's
this really interesting moment where everything is kind of converging
all at the same time, within this period m of
of a couple of years. Really, it's in the zeitgeist. Yeah,
(18:18):
I never thought about the way um John Humphrey Noise
describes the dresses like a woman is like a churn.
I've never really thought of it in that way, but
now I can't stop thinking of it in that way.
It was a pretty effective quote. So you know, in
my opinion, the early adopters of the bloomer costume really
(18:39):
kind of did so for reasons of practicality. Um. The
costume itself, as we said, was the shortened skirt. Um
and then below them were worn the Turkish trousers. Um.
Slippers were worn with him in the summer, delicate little
boots in the winter. Um And And you know, women
were still wearing dresses and petticoats were still all supporting
(19:00):
the skirt, you know, the silhouette and the volume was there.
It's just that they now had this freedom to move
their trouser legs a little more freely in the shortened skirt.
And you know, it has to be pointed out that
the overall effect is not markedly different from fashionable dress
of the era. It's just that for the first time
in centuries of Western dress that women's calves and feet
(19:23):
were revealed. Oh my god, this is so shocky. Right.
But but the point that I want to make sure
that I think is like the big takeaway from this
is that you know, these women were dressing for themselves
to make their lives easier. You know, they were dressing
for comfort rather than the male gaze. Um and And
and it's that fact that they had the audacity to
(19:46):
do so. That's what was really deemed radical, you know,
I mean as in the case many times that you know,
the meaning that we assigned to the garments themselves is arbitrary,
you know, like cass said, women had been wearing you know,
these types of baggy trousers and not only the Middle
East but also in Asia for centuries. Um, you know,
(20:06):
So it wasn't really the pantaloons themselves that were the
feminist statement. It was the women's boldness to defy convention
kind of that made it so so, you know, in
many ways it was the reaction of others to the
bloomer costume that made it so controversial. Yeah, and if
we if we go back a little bit and just
(20:27):
look at the context of other things that's that are
happening at this time, We've we talked about how, um,
women couldn't really own property, couldn't vote, things like that.
That they were a lot of things, a lot of
rights that women did not have that I think we
take for granted today. And the one thing I wanted
to bring up that you guys you uncovered in your
(20:49):
research was this um Tennessee legislator debate. Could you could
you speak to that as one of my favorite quotes ever,
I think cass for that um and the lily. In
March of eighteen fifty, Amelia addressed recent legislature that had
(21:11):
happened in Tennessee. Um, just quite shocking. But I'll let
her speak for herself, and I love her by the way.
She is so outspoken and um sarcastic in her responses
and so quote. The legislature of Tennessee have in their
wisdom decidedly after gravely discussing the question that women have
no souls and no right to hold property? Why is
(21:32):
men these and worthy to be honored with seats in
the halls of legislation? Women no souls, then of course
we're not accountable beings. And if not accountable to our maker,
then surely not to man. Man represents us, legislates for us,
and now holds himself accountable for us. How kind and him?
And what a weight is lifted from us? It's beautiful
(21:56):
fifty shade throwing, Yeah, it is indeed. So you know, basically,
men were going to these extremes to um, you know,
devalue women's place in society, even going as far as
to suggest that they had no souls as a reason
to why they couldn't be active participants. So it's really
quite remarkable actually and interesting how threatening this idea of
(22:21):
women and women's rights was to men and society at
this time. And the bloomer costume was just only a
signifier of that, Yeah, an extension to that. And it
was terrifying to people that women would adopt this essentially
male garment because it represented so much more, really, this
transgression um from their ascribed gender roles. So it was
(22:45):
very exciting and also um terrifying time for many people. Yeah,
I love how you put that. I just don't want
to lose track of, um, how big a deal this was,
because I think for us now we can sort of
take for granted um pants or our bloomers, but it was.
(23:06):
It was a big deal, and it did cause some
terrified reactions from some people. And we'll get into that
after one more quick break for word from our sponsor,
and we're back, thank you sponsored. So, yes, um Bloomers
(23:29):
caused quite quite a stir. There were a lot of
reactions to it, and a lot of varying reactions, especially
at first. Um, do you guys want to get into that? Yeah, So,
in its initial phases, it was really perceived as this
novelty and almost as a curiosity. Amilia writes, quote, as
soon as it became known that I was wearing the dress,
this new dress, letters came pouring in upon me by hundreds,
(23:51):
from women all over the country making inquiries about the
dress and asking for patterns. It really showed how ready
and anxious women were to throw off the burden of long,
heavy skirts. And actually the circulation of the lily, which
was around five hundred a month, rose to four thousands.
So people were really curious about this new style of
dress and probably really excited. I'm sure there were a
(24:12):
lot of women who wanted to embrace this as well.
And um, it was actually adopted by women as far
west as California and in Florida and Abril. I think
you actually have a wonderful quote that speaks to this.
Oh yeah, So there's a lot of primary source press
coverage from the era of when people saw women in
(24:32):
bloomer costume for the very, very first time, and some
of the descriptions are really really wonderful. Um, there was
this one newspaper from Florida that talks about three um
local women that had adopted bloomer dress, and they were
dressed in pink and purple satin. You know, some of
them had on a scarlet bodice paired with blue trousers.
(24:52):
You know, these are these were costly ensembles sometimes And
and I love this quote, this, this whole description, this
whole report of how fascinating these creatures. Where it ends
with this quote. They said they all wore beautiful little
gypsy hats decorated with fresh rosebuds of every human color.
And we almost imagined we had first beheld them, that
(25:13):
we were visited by a flock of fairy queens. God.
You know, so some people, some people were really truly
um enamored um with the style. But um, the style,
as castaid, you know, it spread rather quickly from New
York to Ohio, to Michigan to California, and it even
spread as far as Europe, particularly in London. Um. And
(25:37):
what happens next, Um, it's kind of like early phase
if we start to begin to see this proliferation of
events that were planned centered around the wearing of bloomer costume,
particularly bloomer balls. Um. Yeah, and these these are so fabulous, right,
I mean, they were dances specifically put on for the
(25:57):
purpose of women being able to where this Bloomer style.
You know, some of the women that participated in the
Bloomer Balls had already adopted it as part of their
daily dress. Um. But there was also another like healthy
segment um that that considered themselves really only daring enough
to to put it on for one night only. But
(26:18):
you know, the thing that I can say is that
I think that early on a lot of the press
was a little bit more positive, um than it was
as time passed. Yeah, it took a took a bit
of a turn. Yeah. Um. You know, really the positive
press was kind of quickly outpaced by the negative um.
And and the style. The style was highly controversial, you know,
(26:41):
simply because within Western dress bifurcated garments or pants. You know,
they've been gendered mail for centuries um. And also within
Western culture they still remain to be seen as a
signifier of power, you know. So the adoption of them
by these women for weather, for reasons of practicality or politics, um,
you know, this was perceived as a threat to the
(27:04):
natural order of things, you know. And and if the Bloomers,
most of whom were affiliated with the women's rights movement. Um.
Not all people involved on the women's rights movement war
bloomer costume, but most bloomer costume adopters were part of
the women's rights movements. You know, it was basically thought
that if they gained the equal rights of men, suddenly
(27:26):
they would be no longer interested in marriage or maternity.
I mean, I've seen statements in the press women period
that were basically like, you know, if women are allowed
to wear pants, the depopulation of the world is eminent.
My goodness, I know, it's crazy. It's like from zero
to sixty and and it's and you know, these women
(27:47):
were really kind of usurping quote unquote male privilege and
the fact that they were asking for the right to vote,
they were asking for representation and government. They were asking
for equal pay, and they were asking for their right
to dress as they off fit. UM. And one of
the most um stunning examples, UM that I saw in
the press came from eighteen fifty two when a group
(28:08):
of women wrote into the New York Times and basically
they were like pleading to be left alone to wear
their bloomer costumes on the street. Um. And they said,
as an exercise of our unalienable rights. And of course
the journalist who's reporting on this incident, um it basically says,
you know, oh, if you want to exercise your rights,
(28:29):
then we as men have the right to mock and
riddle cule you in the street. Get over it, ladies.
Oh oh you think that's bad, that's not even the worst.
You know that this wasn't exactly in the press per se.
But but I do think it's worth, um going through
this to really kind of understand the victual that that
(28:51):
these women were subjected to. UM. In eighteen fifty two,
the Men's State Temperance Society meeting in New York, UM
some the women members um of the association that Amelia
had started, the Women State Temperance Society attended, and there
was a doctor there, um Dr Vanderville, who was so
offended just by the presence of fellow temperance activists that
(29:16):
happened to be women. He said at the meeting, he
said that these women were quote hybrid creature, half man,
half woman, belonging to neither sex. This society and the
women's rights movement must be cut down, cut up, root
and branch. I mean, these are the activists on on
(29:37):
you know, on working on the same issue. It's just
that the men did not want the women. They're regardless
of the dress. But it's all of this. This is
like the culture of of of what was happening at
the time. Yeah, and and something that went a long
way and sort of setting this negative tone associated with
the style and specifically anti bloomer ridicule were cartoons. Um. Yes, satire.
(30:05):
I mean people have loved to make fun of fashion
for time eternal basically. Um. But there's this one cartoonist,
John Leach in London who illustrates for this magazine called
Punch Um, and he basically made Bloomerism the subject of
his jokes repeatedly. I think, Um, in eighteen fifty one
there was over twenty or something cartoons specifically against Bloomerism. April,
(30:28):
I think you have a particular one that you There's
so many favorites. Um. My favorite, though, is one where
there's a woman in bloomer costumed out on Wendy proposing
to a man, apparently very shocking for the era. And
then all these women, you know, hanging around with each
other smoking cigars and their shortened skirts and pants. I mean,
(30:51):
they're quite amusing now because you know, we really relate
to these women. Um, But back then this was this was, um,
you know, an attack essentially on these women as being
anti feminine. And actually the irony of all this negative
press is that women's fashion, like I said, was commonly
(31:12):
the source of criticism and derision. Um. Women repeatedly were
criticized throughout history for their perceived vanity, their fickleness, and
their attention to clothing. And yet, as the U. S
Magazine points out in eighteen fifties six quote, when an
effort is made to substitute a costume which admits of
health and energy and grace, every newspaper in the land
(31:33):
rises to cry loud and spare not lest women are
stepping out of their sere and assuming man's attire. I mean,
you can't win, Yeah, another tight rope can't win. Yeah.
And as April said, people are really really threatened by
this transgression because women are moving outside of these prescribed roles,
(31:53):
these clearly delineated roles, to become equals in society. Um.
And there's these underlying fears of gender role reversal that
really becomes bloomerism, really becomes this visual manifestation of all
of these fears. Yeah. Yeah, But Amelia didn't take this,
(32:13):
this lying down, all of this criticism. She she rushed
in to the defense of the Bloomer costume. Correct. Yeah,
I mean, she says, when I saw what a fear
I had raised, I determined that I would not be
frightened from my position, but I would stand my ground
and where the dress when and where I please. So
she wore it on all occasions, she says, at home
and abroad, at church and on the lecture platform, at
(32:36):
fashionable parties and in my business office. I found the
dress light, easy and convenient and well adapted to the
needs of my busy life. And Amelia saw the costume
as a tool. Really, she saw how much attention the
costume itself was getting. And you know, just to paraphrase her,
she said that, you know, if if we're, if our message,
(32:57):
if our cause is getting all of this attention simply
from these costumes that we're wearing, or the style of
dress that we're wearing, which is deemed radical, if people
are coming to hear me because of that, I'm fine
with that, you know, until I stop getting publicity for
this and and bringing people in the doors to hear
our message, I'm not going to wear anything else. UM.
(33:18):
But she did UM kind of cease wearing it daily
around eighteen fifty five or eighteen fifty six, UM, she
moved to Iowa to the planes, and is this a
really funny story. Apparently she says that the wind there
was a real struggle for her because she was unaccustomed
to these high winds like on the planes, and it
(33:41):
would blow her shortened skirt up over her head in
the street. So that was one of the reasons why
she gave it up. UM. But also around the same time,
this is the exact precise moment when the hoop skirt
or cage coloneline hit the marketplace. UM and this eliminated
all the need for those layers and layers of petticoats
(34:04):
because the cage colonel and basically it was a series
of graduated, concentric hoops that held the skirt away from
the body, and you didn't need all those layers of
petticoats anymore. So Amelia felt that this was a suitable
substitute UM for the much shortened bloomer costume. UM and
and many of the other women's rice leaders around the
(34:25):
same time, Um, they felt they began to feel like
this cause of dress reform was taking second stage to
their message of suffrage for equal pay, for representation and government,
the right to own property. And they were like, whoa,
maybe maybe we need to put dress reform on the
back burner and address, you know, some of these other
(34:47):
issues first, right, because it was sort of becoming a distraction.
It was, it was getting a lot more attention than
perhaps they had hoped, and it was some at least
in the view of some people, it was taking away
from these other issues that they really wanted to focus on. Yeah. Absolutely,
(35:08):
And Susan B. Anthony actually reflected on it years later.
She said that I learned the lesson than that to
be successful, a person must attempt but one reform. I
must not present the temperance, the religious, the dress, or
any other besides, but must confine myself to suffrage. So
basically they needed to focus on one issue at a time. Yeah.
(35:29):
But that being said, I mean it didn't disappear entirely. Um.
There was another feminist newspaper that was founded a little
bit later, called The sibyl Um. In an eight they
actually reported back that UM four hundred and three, women
in the United States continue to wear Um reform dress,
whether it be exactly the Bloomer costume or or some
(35:49):
derivation of other associations around this same time begin to
pop up championing the cause of dress reform, and this
will continue all the way into the teen eighties. So
while a lot of the leaders of the women's rights
movement gave up um Bloomer costume, um that that seed
had already been planted, and there are other people that
(36:10):
would pick it up. And one of the things that
I thought was really interesting, as the dress froom for
movements happen in later in the nineteenth century, in the
eighteen eighties, their focus actually shifts away from being about
the skirt length and petticoats and it shifts to become
the corset as being the main issue. Yeah, and something
(36:31):
I actually want to go back a second, because I
actually find it kind of amusing that the sibyl Um,
the women who supported the Dress Reform Association, which was
formed in eighteen fifty six, kind of directly after the
women's rights activists had kind of left off Um wearing
the Bloomer costume. They really kind of openly criticized these women,
and there was a debate about um dress reform and
(36:54):
when women should wear this reform dress, and the women's
rights activists believed that dress reform would come after women
were given their do rights in society, and these dress
reformers actually believed that social change would only occur as
a result of wearing um this style of dress and
presenting it in a moral and exemplary way. Right, So
(37:16):
basically they were they were politicized. There were two There
were two camps. There are some people. Some people wanted
to politicize the dress um and in order to gain reform,
and other people wanted to de politicize dress and deal
with all the other business first. Yeah, and so like.
As April says, it never really went away, but as
as a fashion as that and as an accepted form
(37:38):
address this would not come for many many years. Around
n nineteen eleven, the controversial present terier Paul pay He
put forth a version of quote unquote hair and pants
for women, and these were known as juke colots literally
pant skirt um. Although he always maintained that his versions
were meant to be worn in the privacy of one's home,
his contemporaries such as Bischoff davide Um proved more bold
(38:03):
and they sent their models into the streets to model
these designs. And again this was incredibly controversial. UM. It
was a very short lived movement, and it really wasn't
until the eighteen sixties, so hundred years after Amelie Bloomer UM,
when conformity was thrown to the wind in a whirl
of mini skirts and hippie counterculture. UM. And it was
(38:25):
during this period that women and pants finally found a
footing UM. And it's something that has of course continued
into this day where pants are now part of this
kind of ubiquitous uniform worn by both men and women.
That seems so recent, it is, And one of the
(38:46):
things that struck me, like to to your point, Annie,
you said, it seems to feel so recent. One of
the things that really struck me when I was reading
all the press from UM surrounding the women's rights movements
is that a lot of these issues for almost five
years ago are still the exact same things that we're
talking about today. And at one point I was reading
(39:08):
an article and I cried a little. I was like, really,
we're still having this conversation like come on, good old
tradition of policing women's bodies as alive, and well, yeah,
I I kept thinking about how in politics women are
judged so much more harshly on what they wear. We've
talked about that on the show before, and that's where
(39:30):
a lot of the news coverage focuses on on what
women female candidates are wearing, like sneaker gate or something,
and it is still such a topic of conversation, um
like in the dress code or that we have no
functional pockets and a lot of our clothes, which is
one of our most popular episodes we've ever done, because
a lot of us are frustrated by it, right, and
(39:52):
it it reminds me of that segment on Fox News
that went viral a few years back when those dudes
from Duck Dynasty were saying that eggings were too distracting
for public attire. I had never seen that, by the way,
until you pointed it out, and yeah, it's pretty disturbing. Actually,
these women come out parading in front of this panel
of men who are judging them on what they wear. Yeah,
(40:15):
and it reminded me of the whole point of this blueism,
of what Amelia Bloomer was trying to communicate was that
sometimes women are dressing for themselves and for comfort and
for functionality and not for you, not for maw gaze exactly.
So yeah, a lot of this is still still ongoing.
(40:38):
Oh yeah, I'm April, and I talked about it in
one of our episodes on this modernist dancer and performer
Gabby de Lee, whose body was similarly policed or tried.
People tried to police her in the nineteen tens. But
it really reminded us about a last year, the United
States Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan Um finally agreed
(40:58):
to modernize the dress code for the House of Representatives. UM. Basically,
women could not wear sleeveless business attire until that point
and um. And so it's like, this is two thousand
seventeen and women are still not allowed to wear, um
what they see fit right. And I mean, the whole
(41:19):
conversation around wearing pants suits, Hillary Clinton wearing pants suits,
it's just again you can't, oh my gosh, when that
all happened. Do you know how many press inquiries I
got wanting people people wanting me to comment on pant suits.
It was crazy and I'm like, why are we talking
(41:42):
about this? Seems very like not the point of what
we should be focusing on exactly. And I actually I
declined them all because I was like, I'm not going
to fuel this discussion any further, Like, Yeah, let's let's
try to shift to something more more important like what
she's saying. But you have a little bit of a
(42:04):
quote from Lady Gaga on this whole thing, right, Oh yeah,
Well Lady Gaga, I mean April kind of spoke to
it earlier. How the pant has become, you know, a
co opted garment by both sexes, but it still does
today remain um slightly gendered in that it represents this
um idea of power. And so recently Adam L's annual
(42:26):
Woman in Hollywood celebration, Lady Gaga opted to wear not
a beautiful, um extravagant evening gown, um, but rather an
oversized Mark Jacob suit, and um, it was a suit
that was made for women, but it's still um represents
this masculine garment and um, she really was empowered by
(42:47):
it and that and she said, I had a revelation
that I had to be empowered to be myself today
more than ever to resist the standards of Hollywood, whatever
that means, to resist the standards of dressing to impress,
but to use what really matter, my voice. And as
a woman who was conditioned at a very young age
to listen to what men told me to do, I
decided today I wanted to take the power back. Today
(43:09):
I wear the pants. Yes, I love that I wear
the pants. Go Gaga. It's funny too, because, um, all
of this has made me appreciate pants even more, because
it's just something I think a lot of us take
for granted. And I guess that the the funny part
(43:33):
for me is now I can hardly convince myself to
wear pants. That's such a it's such a great day
when I do it. So I would encourage all of
us to to take a moment and just appreciate the history.
But I certainly have the right to choose now. You,
people like Amelia Bloomer have fought for you to be
(43:55):
able to make that decision whether or not you want
to wear pants or put whatever you want on your body.
The point is that you have the right to do that,
absolutely well said. So it's really thanks to them that
we have that choice today. Yes, so next time you're
struggling in the morning, you're you're trying to pull on
your pants, take a moment, take a breath, and appreciate
(44:20):
all of this history, and but also continue fighting for
better pockets, because I am all about those pockets. Thank
you both so much for coming on. This has been wonderful. Yeah,
thank you for having us. Thank you so much. This
is really fun. Where can our listeners find you. They
(44:42):
can find us on our show A Dressed the History
of Fashion podcast UM, which is on the house Stuff
Works network. You can find it on Google Play, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever else you get your podcasts, UM and cast.
Do you want to tell them about our social media? Yeah,
so we also have our website, ww Dressed podcast dot com.
But we have an Instagram in which we post images
(45:04):
daily to accompany each podcast, and that is at Dressed
Underscored Podcast, which is also our Twitter handle, and you
can find us on Facebook as well at Dressed Podcast
without the underscore. Thank you so much, Annie, Oh my gosh,
thank you so much. This has been wonderful. I when
I heard that they were Bloomer Balls, I can't tell
you how excited it was. Maybe I have I have
(45:29):
a fashion plate depicting one of the Bloomer balls. I
will send it to you and put it on the
Instagram for this episode. That would be amazing. That would
be amazing. Yes, thank you so much for coming on. Listeners.
Go check their show out. It's wonderful. I'm sure you'll
find something super fascinating for you. And if you would
like to email this show, you can our emails mom
(45:52):
Stuff at how stuff works dot com. You can also
find us on Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You
and on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks, as always,
is to our producer Andrew Howard, and thanks to you
for listening. M H.
Hey, this is Annie and you're listening to stuff I've
never told you. And today I am joined by not
one but to guest co host Cassidy Zachary and April Callahan.
Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you,
(00:29):
We're happy to be here. You host. The podcast addressed
the history of fashion, which is all about the history
and stories behind the clothes that we wear and listeners,
if you haven't checked it out, I highly recommended. But
this makes them the perfect folks to talk about our
topic today, bloomerism and uh of note it's Halloween the
(00:51):
day we record this, so it's appropriate for me because
one of the first costumes I ever wore involved bloomers
and I would like to say I had to do
with bloomerism and that I was a feminist from a
very young age, but that would be a lie. I
think it was mini mouse related costume. Well we've come
full circle, yes, so let's let's dive right in. What
(01:14):
is bloomerism um? Casts I'll go ahead and start if
I may. Um. Bloomerism Um It was a dress reform
movement that began in the middle of the nineteenth century,
which really centered around rethinking women's dress UM for both
reasons of health and also comfort, and specifically it focused
(01:34):
on the adoption of pantal loons UM. And these pantaloons
were given the moniker of Bloomers because they were named
after one of their main proponents, who was a million
Jenks Bloomer, and she was the editor and publisher of
a really really early feminist newspaper called The Lily UM.
And what I think is so fascinating about Bloomerism is
(01:54):
that it's this intersection of how the first wave of
American feminists dealt with the topic of fashion dress starting
around eighteen fifty eighteen fifty one. Yeah, when I was
researching into this and I typed in Bloomerism and google
um it some places I saw to find it as
(02:15):
feminism as a type of feminism, which was pretty cool.
And if we if we look at the players here,
some of the key people involved in this story, they
are big ones in the history of feminism, right, yeah, absolutely, yeah,
And so you have Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
and of course Amelia Bloomer who all adopted this style. UM.
(02:38):
But before we really talk about Bloomers, and it's significance
within the women's right movement, I really think we probably
should talk about the movement itself. So in eighteen forty eight,
a woman by the name of Lucretia Mott, her sister
Martha Coffin right, and Elizabeth Caddy stand all organized what
was the first Women's Right Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. UM.
(02:59):
But actually the sea for their feminism was late or
later years earlier in their personal experiences. So just to
give our listeners an idea of what life was like
for women at this time. For Lucretia Mott, for instance,
as a young woman, prior to her marriage, she was
a teacher and this was a position she was quite
proud of until she found out that her male counterparts
(03:19):
were making exponentially more money than her. Still sounds familiar, um,
And so that kind of sparked her interests in women's equality,
in women's rights. And I think April, you can speak
to Elizabeth's experience as a young woman as yeah. Yeah,
So you know, I feel like all these women have
(03:40):
very distinct and separate origin stories, you know, like how
they came to the cause of women's rights. And Elizabeth
Caddy standing story was particularly interesting to me, um, because
it all started when she was a teenager and she
was presidents of a local girls club or young women's club,
and this group of young women or girls they decided
(04:01):
that they wanted to raise funds to help pay for
the tuition of a promising young man who wanted to
attend seminary school that lived in their town. So they
did all sorts of things. They helped bake sales, they
made and sold jam, they organized concerts, you know, and
they basically, you know, contributed significantly to paying for his tuition.
(04:22):
And then when he finally graduated, they made him a
brand new suit, and they invited him to come to
their congregation and address the church. UM. But you know,
instead of acknowledging their efforts in any way, shape or
form or thanking them, basically, he opened up with this
verse from the Bible chapter If Timothy that essentially says,
but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor usurp
(04:45):
the authority over the man, but to be in silence. So,
I mean, this was a huge slab in the face
to these young women. UM. And understandably, Elizabeth was furious.
She got up, stormed out of the church, and the
rest of her friend followed, and she she really cites
this incident as as the moment that she became motivated
(05:09):
to really look into the lack of parity between men
and women, and and she goes on to become one
of the key figures in igniting the women's rights movement. Yeah,
and for Amelia Bloomer, who will learn more about in
a minute two, she remembers being a sixteen year old
girl and witnessing her elderly neighbor being evicted from her
home after her husband died because her entire estate, or
(05:32):
his entire state, was left to his only living heir,
who was a long distance male cousin who this woman
had never met. Um And because at this time, women
could not hold property, they could not vote, They were
basically second class citizens combined to these very defined roles
of wife and mother. And so Lucretia and Elizabeth, for instance,
(05:53):
they meet for the first time in eighteen forty at
the World Anti Slavery Convention in London. And just a
little about Lacresia mo because she's this incredible woman, she's
gifted and respected American Quaker preacher. And it should be
noted that in the Quaker religion, men and women are
regarded as equal, so they're really ahead of their time
at this point. Um. And Lucretia and her husband were
(06:15):
vocal and active abolitionists in America, and she was so
well respected in this community, in fact, that she was
sent to this national conference in London as one of
only six women. And it's here that she meets Elizabeth
Caddy Stand because she and her husband were also abolitionists.
There's a lot of crossover between the early feminist movements
and the abolitionist movements and the temperance movements too. Yeah,
(06:37):
people who are really enlightened at this point. Um. So
these women are in London for this very important cause
in which they had worked and advocated for tirelessly, and
what happens well, the male delegate has been the entire day,
the first day debating about whether or not women should
(06:58):
even be allowed to attend the conference, much less speak
or vote in the proceedings. And the conclusion is to
keep these women. They can be there, but they have
to sit in silence behind a curtain. So, I mean,
this is women's place, right in the shadows of their husbands,
to live in silence and servitude to the role that
they're born in. So UM I mean this to say,
(07:21):
this experience really endeared Lucretia and Elizabeth to one another,
and it's further cemented their beliefs that women were being
denied their God given rights. And in the quote most
shocking and unnatural event ever recorded in the history of
womanity end quote. This is a contemporary quote. By the
way happened. And of course this is the first Women's
(07:41):
Right Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York. And uh
it's at this two day conference that the famous Declaration
of Sentiments document was signed by sixty women and thirty
two men. And this is a document that was authored
by Elizabeth Stanton, and it was essentially a redrafting of
the Declaration of Independence, UM, which quote, we hold these
truths to be self evident that all men and women
(08:04):
are created equal. And it basically advocated for women's equality
and more specifically to their right to own property and
most controversially, to their right to vote. And of the
three people in attendance was Amelia Bloomer. Uh. And out
of all of this kind of comes a lot of
different things. UM. Amelia had already been involved in the
(08:27):
Women's Temperance Movement or the Temperance movement in New York
for anybody who doesn't know what temperance was. Basically, it
was a movement um advocating for the abstinence from alcohol
because drunkenness was considered a problem in the domestic home.
And this was a pretty big movement at the time. UM.
And so when Amelia decides to form in New York
(08:49):
State Women's Temperance Society, that goes hand in hand. They
felt like they needed a platform for their voice, so
they found this publication called The Lily, which was a
really really early feminist newspaper and cast, do you want
to talk a little bit more about that, because I
think I think you have some research on that. Yeah.
So on January one, eighty nine, The Lily was published
(09:12):
for the first time. And this is one of the first,
if not the first newspapers in America for women and
made by women, and Amelia was its editor um from
the beginning. But according to her, even before this first
issue came out, the society had gave up the enterprise
altogether because they weren't really prepared for what it entailed.
They're kind of disillusioned by the time it's first printing happened,
(09:34):
so Amelia was unabated, and she writes, as the editor
of the paper, I threw myself into the work. I
assumed the entire responsibility, took the entire charge editorially and financially,
and carried it successfully through so Um. In the first issue,
she writes, it is women that speaks through the Lily,
and temperance is a great foe to her peace and happiness.
(09:55):
It is that, above all that has made her home
desolate and biggered her offspring. Surely she has a right
to wield her pen for its suppression. Surely she may,
without throwing aside the modest refinements which so much become
her sex, use her influence to lead her fellow mortals
from the destroyer's path. And it's really here where Amelia
begins publishing a few years later, her support for dress
(10:17):
reform in the form of this practical two piece garment. Right.
And this is a lot of the women we've been
talking about. They were involved in writing for the Lily, Right, Yeah,
Elizabeth Cady stanton Um was kind of one of the
first people to broach the subject of dress reform in
the pages of The Lily. Um she did right under
(10:39):
a pseudonym um Sunflower. Her father was a congressman and
wasn't necessarily particularly happy about his daughter's work in in
in the women's rights movement, but um so, she was
writing for the paper. She's kind of the first one
that starts addressing questions like why are our clothes so
(11:01):
hard to fasten? Like why do we have to have
someone help us dress whereas men don't. Um So, these
ideas were already kind of like burgeoning and on the
surface within the pages of The Lily, even before Elizabeth's cousin,
whose name was Libby Miller, came to visit in eighteen fifty.
And this is a really critical moment because when her
(11:22):
cousin Libby shows up, she's wearing Bloomer costume, or what
we now call bloomer costume. So she's wearing a traveling
outfit that was said to be a black satin um
and the skirt, which the typical skirts at the time
of course, swept the ground. The hem of the skirt
had been um shortened about one foot to about five
inches below the knee, and beneath that she had on
(11:45):
what we're kind of called Turkish trousers, so they were
kind of wide legged pantaloons that matched her dress. UM.
But it's this appearance of Libby that really kind of
changes things. UM. Elizabeth and Amilia are both thrilled. They
think this is brilliant UM, and they both adopt the
costume and UM. In one Amelia actually publishes a woodcut
(12:11):
of herself wearing the style and advocates for it in
the pages of The Lily. And this is the moment
where things blow up. Yeah, Bloomers caused quite the stir
when they when they started to take off, and we're
going to talk about that, but before we get into it,
we're going to pause for a quick break for word
from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you, sponsor. So yeah,
(12:43):
let's let's talk a little bit about um, the reaction
to Bloomers, and also some of these other things going
on at the same time that influenced this Bloomerism movement. Yeah. So,
I think I think the first thing is that we
have to understand why dress reform was even considered an
(13:03):
issue of women's rights at this time. In order to
do that, you have to understand what women were wearing
in the eighteen fifties. Um. You know, the fashion people
silhouette was highly restrictive, um, you know, next to their skin.
The first layer, women would have been wearing a layer
of undergarments, either kind of a chemise slip or a
little what's called a chamizette or it's kind of like
a cammy and little knickers that came down to the knee, um.
(13:26):
And these were usually cotton or linen, and then over
that would be worn a tightly laced corset. But that's
when all the petticoats start to get piled on, and
I mean layers and layers of petticoats, like six seven,
eight layers, um. And at least one of these was
probably stiffened by crane or horse hair and the yeah,
(13:47):
I know, itchy, right. But the reason that all of
these layers were worn was to create this volume, um,
in order to support these bell shaped silhouette skirts that
were super fashionable during this time period. And it's only
after piling on all these clothes that a woman would
then put on her dress over all of these layers
(14:09):
beneath um, you know. And this was really the dress
of all American women at this time, regardless of class.
Or social status. I mean that the fineness of the
costuness costliness of your clothes would would be a factor
and would change. But this silhouette was expected of all women,
you know. And and you can imagine this is neither
comfortable or practical. Um. And when you add to the
(14:30):
fact that the fashionable bodices and sleeves of the era
were extremely tight and fitted, you can really understand how
their range of physical movement was was very much inhibited.
You know, they're wearing like fifteen pounds of petticoats, a
tightly laced corset, you know. And and and the way
that the bodices were constructed a lot of times it
made it difficult for women to even raise their arms,
(14:53):
you know. And the reason that petticoats really become the
focus of bloomerism um is because that they did sweep
the ground um. And because of that, they were just
downright unhealthy. You know, they were dragging up dirt, they're
dragging out mud like whatever to try to us was
in the streets or the fields was living on the
inside of your skirt. Um. And you know, of course,
(15:16):
the nature of laundry is not as it is today.
Everything was washed by hand. Um. So, so women felt
truly hampered by the dress of the era that society
expected of them. But you know what, what was the
alternative at this time? Yeah, and so it's really easy
to see why women might want a little bit of
relief from these cumbersome undergarments, these cumbers some garments. And
(15:39):
Amelia at one point wrote, quote, common sense teaches us
that the dress which is the most convenient and best
adapted to our needs is the proper dress dress for
both men and women. So she also goes on to say,
we do not advocate the same style of dress altogether
for both sexes, and should be sorry to see women
dressed just like men. Yet we should like to see
a radical reform. And when's costume so that she might
(16:01):
be the free, healthy being God made her instead of
the corseted, crippled, dragged down creature her slavery to clothes
has made. So it was Amelia Bloomer who would become
most famously associated with the trousers. As April said, she
was um really a well known activist. She traveled and
lectured extensively wearing this costume. But um, as mentioned, she
(16:22):
began to wear the costume after um Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and had worn it influenced by her cousin Libby Miller,
but Libby Miller herself was not also the first woman
to wear it. Um. This style of pant was also
known as Turkish trousers because they were patterned after those
worn by women in the Middle East, and really this
fascination with the exotic East led to their adoption by
(16:44):
European and American women as fancy dress costume in the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and by the early nineteenth
century women were wearing large baggy pants as sportswear and
European sanitariums, and in America in particular, these similar pants
ensembles were being worn by women at water care establishments.
So the water care movement was this interesting movement of
(17:07):
the nineteenth century that championed the Three physicians, water, exercise,
and diet. But this form of costume was also being
worn at these American religious and utopian communities, something I
found particularly interesting. So there's this community of equality and
New Harmony Indiana, but there's also the Oneida community, which
was founded by John Humphrey Noye's in New York, um
(17:30):
in eighteen forty eight, and he actually writes that women's
dress is a standing lie. It proclaims that she is
not a two legged animal, but something like a churn
standing on castors. When the distinction of the sexes is
reduced to the bounds of nature and decency, a dress
will be adopted that will be the same or nearly
the same for both sexes. So women in that community
(17:51):
had adopted this um dress and pant ensemble, and a
couple of sources have suggested that Libby Miller perhaps had
seen these women wearing this ensemble and then that that
was why she decided to adopt it herself. Yeah, it's
this really interesting moment where everything is kind of converging
all at the same time, within this period m of
of a couple of years. Really, it's in the zeitgeist. Yeah,
(18:18):
I never thought about the way um John Humphrey Noise
describes the dresses like a woman is like a churn.
I've never really thought of it in that way, but
now I can't stop thinking of it in that way.
It was a pretty effective quote. So you know, in
my opinion, the early adopters of the bloomer costume really
(18:39):
kind of did so for reasons of practicality. Um. The
costume itself, as we said, was the shortened skirt. Um
and then below them were worn the Turkish trousers. Um.
Slippers were worn with him in the summer, delicate little
boots in the winter. Um And And you know, women
were still wearing dresses and petticoats were still all supporting
(19:00):
the skirt, you know, the silhouette and the volume was there.
It's just that they now had this freedom to move
their trouser legs a little more freely in the shortened skirt.
And you know, it has to be pointed out that
the overall effect is not markedly different from fashionable dress
of the era. It's just that for the first time
in centuries of Western dress that women's calves and feet
(19:23):
were revealed. Oh my god, this is so shocky. Right.
But but the point that I want to make sure
that I think is like the big takeaway from this
is that you know, these women were dressing for themselves
to make their lives easier. You know, they were dressing
for comfort rather than the male gaze. Um and And
and it's that fact that they had the audacity to
(19:46):
do so. That's what was really deemed radical, you know,
I mean as in the case many times that you know,
the meaning that we assigned to the garments themselves is arbitrary,
you know, like cass said, women had been wearing you know,
these types of baggy trousers and not only the Middle
East but also in Asia for centuries. Um, you know,
(20:06):
So it wasn't really the pantaloons themselves that were the
feminist statement. It was the women's boldness to defy convention
kind of that made it so so, you know, in
many ways it was the reaction of others to the
bloomer costume that made it so controversial. Yeah, and if
we if we go back a little bit and just
(20:27):
look at the context of other things that's that are
happening at this time, We've we talked about how, um,
women couldn't really own property, couldn't vote, things like that.
That they were a lot of things, a lot of
rights that women did not have that I think we
take for granted today. And the one thing I wanted
to bring up that you guys you uncovered in your
(20:49):
research was this um Tennessee legislator debate. Could you could
you speak to that as one of my favorite quotes ever,
I think cass for that um and the lily. In
March of eighteen fifty, Amelia addressed recent legislature that had
(21:11):
happened in Tennessee. Um, just quite shocking. But I'll let
her speak for herself, and I love her by the way.
She is so outspoken and um sarcastic in her responses
and so quote. The legislature of Tennessee have in their
wisdom decidedly after gravely discussing the question that women have
no souls and no right to hold property? Why is
(21:32):
men these and worthy to be honored with seats in
the halls of legislation? Women no souls, then of course
we're not accountable beings. And if not accountable to our maker,
then surely not to man. Man represents us, legislates for us,
and now holds himself accountable for us. How kind and him?
And what a weight is lifted from us? It's beautiful
(21:56):
fifty shade throwing, Yeah, it is indeed. So you know, basically,
men were going to these extremes to um, you know,
devalue women's place in society, even going as far as
to suggest that they had no souls as a reason
to why they couldn't be active participants. So it's really
quite remarkable actually and interesting how threatening this idea of
(22:21):
women and women's rights was to men and society at
this time. And the bloomer costume was just only a
signifier of that, Yeah, an extension to that. And it
was terrifying to people that women would adopt this essentially
male garment because it represented so much more, really, this
transgression um from their ascribed gender roles. So it was
(22:45):
very exciting and also um terrifying time for many people. Yeah,
I love how you put that. I just don't want
to lose track of, um, how big a deal this was,
because I think for us now we can sort of
take for granted um pants or our bloomers, but it was.
(23:06):
It was a big deal, and it did cause some
terrified reactions from some people. And we'll get into that
after one more quick break for word from our sponsor,
and we're back, thank you sponsored. So, yes, um Bloomers
(23:29):
caused quite quite a stir. There were a lot of
reactions to it, and a lot of varying reactions, especially
at first. Um, do you guys want to get into that? Yeah, So,
in its initial phases, it was really perceived as this
novelty and almost as a curiosity. Amilia writes, quote, as
soon as it became known that I was wearing the dress,
this new dress, letters came pouring in upon me by hundreds,
(23:51):
from women all over the country making inquiries about the
dress and asking for patterns. It really showed how ready
and anxious women were to throw off the burden of long,
heavy skirts. And actually the circulation of the lily, which
was around five hundred a month, rose to four thousands.
So people were really curious about this new style of
dress and probably really excited. I'm sure there were a
(24:12):
lot of women who wanted to embrace this as well.
And um, it was actually adopted by women as far
west as California and in Florida and Abril. I think
you actually have a wonderful quote that speaks to this.
Oh yeah, So there's a lot of primary source press
coverage from the era of when people saw women in
(24:32):
bloomer costume for the very, very first time, and some
of the descriptions are really really wonderful. Um, there was
this one newspaper from Florida that talks about three um
local women that had adopted bloomer dress, and they were
dressed in pink and purple satin. You know, some of
them had on a scarlet bodice paired with blue trousers.
(24:52):
You know, these are these were costly ensembles sometimes And
and I love this quote, this, this whole description, this
whole report of how fascinating these creatures. Where it ends
with this quote. They said they all wore beautiful little
gypsy hats decorated with fresh rosebuds of every human color.
And we almost imagined we had first beheld them, that
(25:13):
we were visited by a flock of fairy queens. God.
You know, so some people, some people were really truly
um enamored um with the style. But um, the style,
as castaid, you know, it spread rather quickly from New
York to Ohio, to Michigan to California, and it even
spread as far as Europe, particularly in London. Um. And
(25:37):
what happens next, Um, it's kind of like early phase
if we start to begin to see this proliferation of
events that were planned centered around the wearing of bloomer costume,
particularly bloomer balls. Um. Yeah, and these these are so fabulous, right,
I mean, they were dances specifically put on for the
(25:57):
purpose of women being able to where this Bloomer style.
You know, some of the women that participated in the
Bloomer Balls had already adopted it as part of their
daily dress. Um. But there was also another like healthy
segment um that that considered themselves really only daring enough
to to put it on for one night only. But
(26:18):
you know, the thing that I can say is that
I think that early on a lot of the press
was a little bit more positive, um than it was
as time passed. Yeah, it took a took a bit
of a turn. Yeah. Um. You know, really the positive
press was kind of quickly outpaced by the negative um.
And and the style. The style was highly controversial, you know,
(26:41):
simply because within Western dress bifurcated garments or pants. You know,
they've been gendered mail for centuries um. And also within
Western culture they still remain to be seen as a
signifier of power, you know. So the adoption of them
by these women for weather, for reasons of practicality or politics, um,
you know, this was perceived as a threat to the
(27:04):
natural order of things, you know. And and if the Bloomers,
most of whom were affiliated with the women's rights movement. Um.
Not all people involved on the women's rights movement war
bloomer costume, but most bloomer costume adopters were part of
the women's rights movements. You know, it was basically thought
that if they gained the equal rights of men, suddenly
(27:26):
they would be no longer interested in marriage or maternity.
I mean, I've seen statements in the press women period
that were basically like, you know, if women are allowed
to wear pants, the depopulation of the world is eminent.
My goodness, I know, it's crazy. It's like from zero
to sixty and and it's and you know, these women
(27:47):
were really kind of usurping quote unquote male privilege and
the fact that they were asking for the right to vote,
they were asking for representation and government. They were asking
for equal pay, and they were asking for their right
to dress as they off fit. UM. And one of
the most um stunning examples, UM that I saw in
the press came from eighteen fifty two when a group
(28:08):
of women wrote into the New York Times and basically
they were like pleading to be left alone to wear
their bloomer costumes on the street. Um. And they said,
as an exercise of our unalienable rights. And of course
the journalist who's reporting on this incident, um it basically says,
you know, oh, if you want to exercise your rights,
(28:29):
then we as men have the right to mock and
riddle cule you in the street. Get over it, ladies.
Oh oh you think that's bad, that's not even the worst.
You know that this wasn't exactly in the press per se.
But but I do think it's worth, um going through
this to really kind of understand the victual that that
(28:51):
these women were subjected to. UM. In eighteen fifty two,
the Men's State Temperance Society meeting in New York, UM
some the women members um of the association that Amelia
had started, the Women State Temperance Society attended, and there
was a doctor there, um Dr Vanderville, who was so
offended just by the presence of fellow temperance activists that
(29:16):
happened to be women. He said at the meeting, he
said that these women were quote hybrid creature, half man,
half woman, belonging to neither sex. This society and the
women's rights movement must be cut down, cut up, root
and branch. I mean, these are the activists on on
(29:37):
you know, on working on the same issue. It's just
that the men did not want the women. They're regardless
of the dress. But it's all of this. This is
like the culture of of of what was happening at
the time. Yeah, and and something that went a long
way and sort of setting this negative tone associated with
the style and specifically anti bloomer ridicule were cartoons. Um. Yes, satire.
(30:05):
I mean people have loved to make fun of fashion
for time eternal basically. Um. But there's this one cartoonist,
John Leach in London who illustrates for this magazine called
Punch Um, and he basically made Bloomerism the subject of
his jokes repeatedly. I think, Um, in eighteen fifty one
there was over twenty or something cartoons specifically against Bloomerism. April,
(30:28):
I think you have a particular one that you There's
so many favorites. Um. My favorite, though, is one where
there's a woman in bloomer costumed out on Wendy proposing
to a man, apparently very shocking for the era. And
then all these women, you know, hanging around with each
other smoking cigars and their shortened skirts and pants. I mean,
(30:51):
they're quite amusing now because you know, we really relate
to these women. Um, But back then this was this was, um,
you know, an attack essentially on these women as being
anti feminine. And actually the irony of all this negative
press is that women's fashion, like I said, was commonly
(31:12):
the source of criticism and derision. Um. Women repeatedly were
criticized throughout history for their perceived vanity, their fickleness, and
their attention to clothing. And yet, as the U. S
Magazine points out in eighteen fifties six quote, when an
effort is made to substitute a costume which admits of
health and energy and grace, every newspaper in the land
(31:33):
rises to cry loud and spare not lest women are
stepping out of their sere and assuming man's attire. I mean,
you can't win, Yeah, another tight rope can't win. Yeah.
And as April said, people are really really threatened by
this transgression because women are moving outside of these prescribed roles,
(31:53):
these clearly delineated roles, to become equals in society. Um.
And there's these underlying fears of gender role reversal that
really becomes bloomerism, really becomes this visual manifestation of all
of these fears. Yeah. Yeah, But Amelia didn't take this,
(32:13):
this lying down, all of this criticism. She she rushed
in to the defense of the Bloomer costume. Correct. Yeah,
I mean, she says, when I saw what a fear
I had raised, I determined that I would not be
frightened from my position, but I would stand my ground
and where the dress when and where I please. So
she wore it on all occasions, she says, at home
and abroad, at church and on the lecture platform, at
(32:36):
fashionable parties and in my business office. I found the
dress light, easy and convenient and well adapted to the
needs of my busy life. And Amelia saw the costume
as a tool. Really, she saw how much attention the
costume itself was getting. And you know, just to paraphrase her,
she said that, you know, if if we're, if our message,
(32:57):
if our cause is getting all of this attention simply
from these costumes that we're wearing, or the style of
dress that we're wearing, which is deemed radical, if people
are coming to hear me because of that, I'm fine
with that, you know, until I stop getting publicity for
this and and bringing people in the doors to hear
our message, I'm not going to wear anything else. UM.
(33:18):
But she did UM kind of cease wearing it daily
around eighteen fifty five or eighteen fifty six, UM, she
moved to Iowa to the planes, and is this a
really funny story. Apparently she says that the wind there
was a real struggle for her because she was unaccustomed
to these high winds like on the planes, and it
(33:41):
would blow her shortened skirt up over her head in
the street. So that was one of the reasons why
she gave it up. UM. But also around the same time,
this is the exact precise moment when the hoop skirt
or cage coloneline hit the marketplace. UM and this eliminated
all the need for those layers and layers of petticoats
(34:04):
because the cage colonel and basically it was a series
of graduated, concentric hoops that held the skirt away from
the body, and you didn't need all those layers of
petticoats anymore. So Amelia felt that this was a suitable
substitute UM for the much shortened bloomer costume. UM and
and many of the other women's rice leaders around the
(34:25):
same time, Um, they felt they began to feel like
this cause of dress reform was taking second stage to
their message of suffrage for equal pay, for representation and government,
the right to own property. And they were like, whoa,
maybe maybe we need to put dress reform on the
back burner and address, you know, some of these other
(34:47):
issues first, right, because it was sort of becoming a distraction.
It was, it was getting a lot more attention than
perhaps they had hoped, and it was some at least
in the view of some people, it was taking away
from these other issues that they really wanted to focus on. Yeah. Absolutely,
(35:08):
And Susan B. Anthony actually reflected on it years later.
She said that I learned the lesson than that to
be successful, a person must attempt but one reform. I
must not present the temperance, the religious, the dress, or
any other besides, but must confine myself to suffrage. So
basically they needed to focus on one issue at a time. Yeah.
(35:29):
But that being said, I mean it didn't disappear entirely. Um.
There was another feminist newspaper that was founded a little
bit later, called The sibyl Um. In an eight they
actually reported back that UM four hundred and three, women
in the United States continue to wear Um reform dress,
whether it be exactly the Bloomer costume or or some
(35:49):
derivation of other associations around this same time begin to
pop up championing the cause of dress reform, and this
will continue all the way into the teen eighties. So
while a lot of the leaders of the women's rights
movement gave up um Bloomer costume, um that that seed
had already been planted, and there are other people that
(36:10):
would pick it up. And one of the things that
I thought was really interesting, as the dress froom for
movements happen in later in the nineteenth century, in the
eighteen eighties, their focus actually shifts away from being about
the skirt length and petticoats and it shifts to become
the corset as being the main issue. Yeah, and something
(36:31):
I actually want to go back a second, because I
actually find it kind of amusing that the sibyl Um,
the women who supported the Dress Reform Association, which was
formed in eighteen fifty six, kind of directly after the
women's rights activists had kind of left off Um wearing
the Bloomer costume. They really kind of openly criticized these women,
and there was a debate about um dress reform and
(36:54):
when women should wear this reform dress, and the women's
rights activists believed that dress reform would come after women
were given their do rights in society, and these dress
reformers actually believed that social change would only occur as
a result of wearing um this style of dress and
presenting it in a moral and exemplary way. Right, So
(37:16):
basically they were they were politicized. There were two There
were two camps. There are some people. Some people wanted
to politicize the dress um and in order to gain reform,
and other people wanted to de politicize dress and deal
with all the other business first. Yeah, and so like.
As April says, it never really went away, but as
as a fashion as that and as an accepted form
(37:38):
address this would not come for many many years. Around
n nineteen eleven, the controversial present terier Paul pay He
put forth a version of quote unquote hair and pants
for women, and these were known as juke colots literally
pant skirt um. Although he always maintained that his versions
were meant to be worn in the privacy of one's home,
his contemporaries such as Bischoff davide Um proved more bold
(38:03):
and they sent their models into the streets to model
these designs. And again this was incredibly controversial. UM. It
was a very short lived movement, and it really wasn't
until the eighteen sixties, so hundred years after Amelie Bloomer UM,
when conformity was thrown to the wind in a whirl
of mini skirts and hippie counterculture. UM. And it was
(38:25):
during this period that women and pants finally found a
footing UM. And it's something that has of course continued
into this day where pants are now part of this
kind of ubiquitous uniform worn by both men and women.
That seems so recent, it is, And one of the
(38:46):
things that struck me, like to to your point, Annie,
you said, it seems to feel so recent. One of
the things that really struck me when I was reading
all the press from UM surrounding the women's rights movements
is that a lot of these issues for almost five
years ago are still the exact same things that we're
talking about today. And at one point I was reading
(39:08):
an article and I cried a little. I was like, really,
we're still having this conversation like come on, good old
tradition of policing women's bodies as alive, and well, yeah,
I I kept thinking about how in politics women are
judged so much more harshly on what they wear. We've
talked about that on the show before, and that's where
(39:30):
a lot of the news coverage focuses on on what
women female candidates are wearing, like sneaker gate or something,
and it is still such a topic of conversation, um
like in the dress code or that we have no
functional pockets and a lot of our clothes, which is
one of our most popular episodes we've ever done, because
a lot of us are frustrated by it, right, and
(39:52):
it it reminds me of that segment on Fox News
that went viral a few years back when those dudes
from Duck Dynasty were saying that eggings were too distracting
for public attire. I had never seen that, by the way,
until you pointed it out, and yeah, it's pretty disturbing. Actually,
these women come out parading in front of this panel
of men who are judging them on what they wear. Yeah,
(40:15):
and it reminded me of the whole point of this blueism,
of what Amelia Bloomer was trying to communicate was that
sometimes women are dressing for themselves and for comfort and
for functionality and not for you, not for maw gaze exactly.
So yeah, a lot of this is still still ongoing.
(40:38):
Oh yeah, I'm April, and I talked about it in
one of our episodes on this modernist dancer and performer
Gabby de Lee, whose body was similarly policed or tried.
People tried to police her in the nineteen tens. But
it really reminded us about a last year, the United
States Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan Um finally agreed
(40:58):
to modernize the dress code for the House of Representatives. UM. Basically,
women could not wear sleeveless business attire until that point
and um. And so it's like, this is two thousand
seventeen and women are still not allowed to wear, um
what they see fit right. And I mean, the whole
(41:19):
conversation around wearing pants suits, Hillary Clinton wearing pants suits,
it's just again you can't, oh my gosh, when that
all happened. Do you know how many press inquiries I
got wanting people people wanting me to comment on pant suits.
It was crazy and I'm like, why are we talking
(41:42):
about this? Seems very like not the point of what
we should be focusing on exactly. And I actually I
declined them all because I was like, I'm not going
to fuel this discussion any further, Like, Yeah, let's let's
try to shift to something more more important like what
she's saying. But you have a little bit of a
(42:04):
quote from Lady Gaga on this whole thing, right, Oh yeah,
Well Lady Gaga, I mean April kind of spoke to
it earlier. How the pant has become, you know, a
co opted garment by both sexes, but it still does
today remain um slightly gendered in that it represents this
um idea of power. And so recently Adam L's annual
(42:26):
Woman in Hollywood celebration, Lady Gaga opted to wear not
a beautiful, um extravagant evening gown, um, but rather an
oversized Mark Jacob suit, and um, it was a suit
that was made for women, but it's still um represents
this masculine garment and um, she really was empowered by
(42:47):
it and that and she said, I had a revelation
that I had to be empowered to be myself today
more than ever to resist the standards of Hollywood, whatever
that means, to resist the standards of dressing to impress,
but to use what really matter, my voice. And as
a woman who was conditioned at a very young age
to listen to what men told me to do, I
decided today I wanted to take the power back. Today
(43:09):
I wear the pants. Yes, I love that I wear
the pants. Go Gaga. It's funny too, because, um, all
of this has made me appreciate pants even more, because
it's just something I think a lot of us take
for granted. And I guess that the the funny part
(43:33):
for me is now I can hardly convince myself to
wear pants. That's such a it's such a great day
when I do it. So I would encourage all of
us to to take a moment and just appreciate the history.
But I certainly have the right to choose now. You,
people like Amelia Bloomer have fought for you to be
(43:55):
able to make that decision whether or not you want
to wear pants or put whatever you want on your body.
The point is that you have the right to do that,
absolutely well said. So it's really thanks to them that
we have that choice today. Yes, so next time you're
struggling in the morning, you're you're trying to pull on
your pants, take a moment, take a breath, and appreciate
(44:20):
all of this history, and but also continue fighting for
better pockets, because I am all about those pockets. Thank
you both so much for coming on. This has been wonderful. Yeah,
thank you for having us. Thank you so much. This
is really fun. Where can our listeners find you. They
(44:42):
can find us on our show A Dressed the History
of Fashion podcast UM, which is on the house Stuff
Works network. You can find it on Google Play, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever else you get your podcasts, UM and cast.
Do you want to tell them about our social media? Yeah,
so we also have our website, ww Dressed podcast dot com.
But we have an Instagram in which we post images
(45:04):
daily to accompany each podcast, and that is at Dressed
Underscored Podcast, which is also our Twitter handle, and you
can find us on Facebook as well at Dressed Podcast
without the underscore. Thank you so much, Annie, Oh my gosh,
thank you so much. This has been wonderful. I when
I heard that they were Bloomer Balls, I can't tell
you how excited it was. Maybe I have I have
(45:29):
a fashion plate depicting one of the Bloomer balls. I
will send it to you and put it on the
Instagram for this episode. That would be amazing. That would
be amazing. Yes, thank you so much for coming on. Listeners.
Go check their show out. It's wonderful. I'm sure you'll
find something super fascinating for you. And if you would
like to email this show, you can our emails mom
(45:52):
Stuff at how stuff works dot com. You can also
find us on Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You
and on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks, as always,
is to our producer Andrew Howard, and thanks to you
for listening. M H.
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