Victorian dress reform
Victorian dress reform was an objective of the Victorian dress reform movement (also known as the rational dress movement) of the middle and late Victorian era, led by various reformers who proposed, designed, and wore clothing considered more practical and comfortable than the fashions of the time.
Dress reformists were largely middle-class women involved in the
Some of the movement's proponents established dress reform parlors, or storefronts, where women could buy sewing patterns for the garments, or buy them directly.[2][3]
Criticisms of tightlacing
Fashion in the 1850s through the 1880s accented large
American women active in the anti-slavery and temperance movements, having experience in public speaking and political agitation, demanded sensible clothing that would not restrict their movement.[9] While supporters of fashionable dress contended that corsets maintained an upright, 'good figure', as a necessary physical structure for moral and well-ordered society, these dress reformists contested that women's fashions were not only physically detrimental, but "the results of male conspiracy to make women subservient by cultivating them in slave psychology."[4][10] They believed a change in fashions could change the whole position of women, allowing for greater social mobility, independence from men and marriage, the ability to work for wages, as well as physical movement and comfort.[11]
"Emancipation waists" and undergarment reform
Dress reformers promoted the emancipation waist, or liberty bodice, as a replacement for the corset. The emancipation bodice was a tight sleeveless vest, buttoning up the front, with rows of buttons along the bottom to which could be attached petticoats and a skirt. The entire torso would support the weight of the petticoats and skirt, not just the waist (since the undesirability of hanging the entire weight of full skirts and petticoats from a constricted waist—rather than hanging the garments from the shoulders—was another point often discussed by dress reformers).[12] The bodices had to be fitted by a dressmaker; patterns could be ordered through the mail. Physician Alice Bunker Stockham railed against the corset and said of the pregnancy corset, "The Best pregnancy corset is no corset at all."[6] The "emancipation union under flannel" was first sold in America in 1868. It combined a waist (shirt) and drawers (leggings) in the form we now know as the union suit. While first designed for women, the union suit was also adopted by men, and is still sold and worn today, by both men and women, as winter underclothing.
In 1878, a German professor named Gustav Jaeger published a book claiming that only clothing made of animal hair, such as wool, promoted health. A British accountant named Lewis Tomalin translated the book, then opened a shop selling Dr Jaeger's Sanitary Woollen System, including knitted wool union suits. These were soon called "Jaegers"; they were widely popular.
It is not clear how many women, in either
The hygienic corset
The primary result of the dress reform movement seems to be the evolution, rather than elimination, of the corset. Because of the public health outcry surrounding corsets and tightlacing, many doctors took it upon themselves to become
Bloomer suit
The most famous product of the dress reform era is the
They put up a fight for a few years, but were subjected to ridicule in the press[15][16] and harassment on the street.[17] The more conservative of society protested that women had 'lost the mystery and attractiveness as they discarded their flowing robes."[18]
Amelia Bloomer herself dropped the fashion in 1859, saying that a new invention, the crinoline, was a sufficient reform and that she could return to conventional dress. The bloomer costume died—temporarily. It was to return much later (in a different form), as a women's athletic costume in the 1890s and early 1900s.
Aesthetic Dress movement
In the 1870s, a largely English movement led by
The
The style spread as an "anti-fashion" called
The rational dress movement by country
The dress reform movement spread from the United States and Great Britain to the Nordic countries in the 1880s and from Germany to Austria and the Netherlands. The issue was internationally addressed at the International Congress for Women's Work and Women's Endeavors in Berlin 1896, in which Germany, America, Belgium, Denmark, England, Finland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Hungary participated.[21]
Denmark
In Denmark, the
Finland
While there were no separate dress reform societies founded in Finland, the women's rights society
France
There were no separate dress reform societies founded in France. While the issue was adopted and discussed by several of the existing French women's rights organisations, the issue was not given priority and it was not until the great enthusiasm for bicycling in France in the 1890s that women in general adopted the bloomer costume with trousers and no corsets as sports wear.[21]
In the early 20th century, however, the French fashion industry was finally influenced by the reform dress movement, which abolished the corset by the 1910s.
Germany
Germany was a leading country of the dress reform in the 19th century, as it was an integrated part of the great health reform movement Lebensreform, which spoke for a health reform in clothing for both women and men supported by medical professionals and scientists such as Gustav Jaeger and Heinrich Lahmann, and freedom from the corset and trousers for women was advocated for already.[21]
The women's movement, however, did not engage in the issue until after the International Women's Congress in Berlin in September 1896. Two weeks later the German dress reform association, Allgemeiner Verein zur Verbesserung der Frauenkleidung (General Association for the Improvement of Women's Clothing), was founded. Its first exhibition took place in April 1897 in Berlin. 35 manufacturers had submitted reform proposals. Since 1899 there was even a permanent exhibition in Berlin with examples of "improved women's clothing". Like their equivalents in Austria, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries, the German dress reform association focused on the reform of women's undergarments as the most realistic goal, mainly on corsets. The German movement managed to affect public opinion to such a degree that one of its leading figures, Minna Cauer, was able to report in 1907 that the German corset industry experienced hardships because of a drop in the use of corsets.[21]
Japan
Inokuchi Akuri also designed sports clothes for children.
At the imperial court, simplified keiko replaced more cumbersome garments.[citation needed]
The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, interest for the issue was aroused after the foundation of a dress reform society in neighboring Germany, and in 1899 the Dutch dress reform society Veereeniging voor Verbetering van Vrouwenkleeding (V.v.V.v.V.).[21] The dress reform society held lectures, participated in exhibitions and worked with designed to produce a new fashion for women which could be not only attractive but also comfortable and healthy at the same time.[21]
Norway
While there were no separate dress reform societies founded in Norway, the women's rights society
Norway is in fact described as one of the countries were the interest and success for the issue was greatest. The physician Lorentz Dietrichson, a prominent participant for the abolition of the corset in the corset controversy in both Sweden and Norway, held a lecture in Norway in favor of dress reform already in 1886, as a commentary of the Swedish dress reform movement in which he himself also participated; the Swedish dress reform society successfully exhibited their reform dress in Oslo, the Norsk Kvinnesaksforening became interested, and the movement thereby started in Norway the same year as in Sweden. Johanne Biörn held lectures in the Oslo schools, and the Norwegian designer Kristine Dahl experienced success not only in her home country of Norway but also in Sweden, becoming a central figure of the dress reform movement.[22]
Sweden
Sweden was a leading nation of the dress reform movement, as the movement came first to Sweden of all the Nordic countries and spread from there to Denmark, Finland and Norway.[22]
In 1885, professor
After an initial attempt to launch a reform costume, the Swedish dress reform movement focused on a reform of women's underwear, particularly the corset. The Swedish reform dress movement corresponded with their equivalent in Great Britain as well as the American dress reform movement of Annie Jenness Miller.[21]
The dress reform movement did achieve some success in Sweden; by the 1890s, corsets were no longer accepted for the pupils of the Swedish girls' schools, and the leading Swedish fashion designer Augusta Lundin reported that her clients no longer subjected themselves to tight lacing.[22]
Eventual shifts in fashion
Although the Victorian dress reform movement itself failed to enact widespread
With new opportunities for
Although forms of corsets, girdles and bras were worn well into the 1960s, as Riegel states, "Feminine emancipation had brought greater dress reform than the most visionary of the early feminists had advocated."[27]
Gallery
-
Approx. second half of 1880s poster showing Annie Oakley wearing short-skirted attire
-
1896 ad showing a modified girdle, allowing women freedom of the lower extremities, making it easier to ride a bicycle, then in vogue
-
An 1897 ad, showing a relatively early example of an ordinary non-sea-bathing woman in public view in unskirted garments (to ride a bicycle)
-
Wigan "pit brow lasses" scandalized by wearing trousers for dangerous work in coal mines. They wore skirts over their trousers, rolled up to the waist to keep them out of the way.
See also
- Bicycle
- Corset controversy
- History of the bicycle
- Lebensreform
- Liberty bodice
- Svenska drägtreformföreningen
- Trousers as women's clothing
- Victorian fashion
- Women's suffrage and Western women's fashion through the early 20th century
References
- ^ "Fashion, Emancipation, Reform and the Rational Undergarment" Deborah Jean Waugh 'Dress' Vol 4, 1978"
- ^ Bryan, C.W. (1887). Good Housekeeping, Vols. 5-6.
- ^ "Downtown Walk". Boston Women's Heritage Trail.
- ^ a b Dress and Morality by Aileen Ribeiro, (Homes and Meier Publishers Inc: New York. 1986) p. 134
- ISBN 0750938099.
- ^ a b Alice Bunker Stockham. Tokology 1898.
- ^ Beecher, Catharine Esther; Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1870). Principles of Domestic Science: As Applied to the Duties and Pleasures of Home : a Text-book for the Use of Young Ladies in Schools, Seminaries, and Colleges. J.B. Ford.
- ^ ISBN 185973510X.
- ^ "Woman's dress, a question of the day". Early Canadiana Online. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
- ^ "Women's Clothes and Women's Right," Robert E. Riegel, American Quarterly, 15 (1963): 390
- ^ "Women's Clothes and Women's Right," Robert E. Riegel, American Quarterly, 15 (1963): 391
- ^ "Woman's dress, a question of the day". Early Canadiana Online. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
- ^ a b Libes, Kenna (5 February 2023). "Inès Gâches-Sarraute and the Straight-Front Corset". Fashion History Timeline. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
- ISBN 0873387422
- ^ The New York Times, October 5, 1851: 'Bloomerism in London:...One journal hints very ill-naturedly that the new dress is best adapted for a particular class of "ladies", who, poor things, having a deal of "street-walking", would find the Bloomer costume quite a blessing..'
- ^ The Times, Wednesday, Aug 20, 1851; pg. 5; Issue 20885; col A: 'DEBUT OF THE "BLOOMER" COSTUME IN BELFAST:...Three ladies... made their appearance in full "Bloomer" costume...Others, and these most numerous, expressed an opinion the reverse of complimentary to the rank and character of the ladies, identifying them with persons whose overdressed gaiety of appearance in public stamps the class to which they belong.'
- ^ The Times, Thursday, Aug 28, 1851; pg. 7; Issue 20892; col B: (A report from the Caledonian Mercury of two women appearing in Edinburgh in reformed dress)'BLOOMERISM IN EDINBURGH:...The singular spectacle thus presented attracted considerable attention even in the retired quarter of the town where it was witnessed, and comments, characterized by freedom more than politeness, were now and again made by urchins who followed the unblushing Bloomers...we learn that the ladies are Americans;...'
- ^ "Women's Clothes and Women's Right", Robert E. Riegel, American Quarterly, 15 (1963):393
- ^ Dress and Morality by Aileen Ribeiro, (Homes and Meier Publishers Inc: New York. 1986): 139
- ^ The Visual History of Costume. Aileen Ribeiro and Valerie Cumming, (Costume & Fashion Press, New York, 1989):188
- ^ ISBN 0873387422.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hazelius-Berg, Gunnel, Dräktreformer under 1800-talet, Fataburen Nordiska Museets och Skansens årsbok 1949 s. 127–156
- ^ a b Racel, Masako N. Thesis (2011). Finding their Place in the World: Meiji Intellectuals and the Japanese Construction of an East-West Binary, 1868-1912 (Thesis). Georgia State University. Source says:"See Shimoda, "Honbō joshi fukusō no enkaku本邦女子服装の沿革 [The Historical Development of Women's Clothing in Japan]," Part I, Onna, 31 January 1901, in Shimoda Utako chosakushū, vol. 1, 1-3; "Joshi no tainin no han'i ni tsukite," Nihon Fujin, 25 April 1900, in Shimoda Utako chosakushū, vol. 4, 107-127."
- .
- ^ "History of Gakushuin". www.gakushuin.ac.jp. The Gakushuin School. Archived from the original on 2020-10-20. Retrieved 2021-07-17.
- ISBN 978-91-27-15169-7. OCLC 1112090542
- ^ a b "Women's Clothes and Women's Right," Robert E. Riegel, American Quarterly, 15 (1963): 399
- ^ "Women's Clothes and Women's Rights," Robert E. Riegel, American Quarterly, 15 (1963): 400
- ^ Dress and Morality by Aileen Ribeiro, (Homes and Meier Publishers Inc: New York. 1986) p. 143
- ^ "Women's Clothes and Women's Rights," Robert E. Riegel, American Quarterly, 15 (1963): 399
- ^ ("Fashion, Emancipation, Reform and the Rational Undergarment" Deborah Jean Waugh 'Dress' Vol 4, 1978: 238 Quote by Lady Duff Gordon (Lucile) from "Discretions and Indiscretions")