What was Amelia Bloomer famous for?

Question Posted / guest

2 Answers
6792 Views
I also Faced
E-Mail Answers

Answers were Sorted based on User's Feedback

What was Amelia Bloomer famous for?..

Answer / guest

The American Mrs. Amelia Bloomer denounced the skirt style
that needed so many petticoats, suggesting a bifurcated
garment as a solution. Six petticoats at least were needed
to hold the wide full skirts out. The petticoats used
under one skirt could weigh as much as 14 pounds, so
clothes were uncomfortably hot and heavy in summer. Mrs.
Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818-1894), caused quite a stir when
she wrote an article for her feminist publication 'The
Lily'. She tried to promote the idea of women abandoning
their petticoats for a bi-furcated garment later known as
the bloomer fashion. She suggested that woman would find
trousers like those worn by Turkish women easier to wear
than their voluminous heavy skirts. The baggy bloomer
trousers she liked reached to the ankle, were frill cuffed
and worn with a simple knee length skirt and bodice. She
thought it a sensible and hygienic option to the boned
fashion bodices and long weighty skirts of the time.

The baggy trouser outfit was worn by a minority, including
the Rational Dress Reform Society. It never gained
popularity until after Mrs. Bloomer's death. Mrs. Bloomer
abandoned trousers in 1857 when she admitted she found the
cage crinoline comfortable compared to the weight of
petticoats. A year after her death in 1895 some women
accepted a form of the bloomer fashion style. The trousers
now called bloomers, were adopted as suitable cycling wear
for ladies.