WOMEN IN TROUSERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 99, 16 May 1941, Page 42

WOMEN IN TROUSERS

LL women who spend A their mornings at home and their -week-ends at the beach rushing round in slacks should pay yearly tribute to the memory of Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, the first woman to advocate some, form of divided skirt for women. Mrs. Bloomer was a feminist rather than a fashion designer, but the same irony of fate which has made Wolsey a household word has decreed that Mrs. Bloomer’s political reforms should be forgotten, and even the garments to which she gave her name should be superseded by less bulky articles of clothing.

Mrs, Bloomer was the wife of an American publisher. As early as 1840 when the pioneers were arriving in New Zealand in the Tory and the Aurora, "Mrs. Bloomer was advocating votes for women. When her headstrong cousin, Mrs. Elizabeth -Smith Miller, arrived from the East wearing an ankle-length pantaloon and knee-length skirt Mrs. Bloomer took up the idea with enthusiasm. She and her cousin were the first Western girls in trousers, and Elizabeth even displayed her.dress at Washington during her father’s: term in Congress. Mrs. Bloomer used her paper The Lily to advertise the new mode and to warn women of the evils of drink. Anti-Bloomer Riots Soon, in spite of denunciation from their husbands at home and from clergymen in public, women all over America were wearing the mew dress. Antibloomer riots occurred in New York, where Mrs. Bloomer appeared in public to prove that Trousers, Temperance and Universal Suffrage went together. Mr. Bloomer left home, but the Bloomer movement went on. In London, women paraded Hyde Park in bloomers, distributing pamphlets on women’s suffrage. Punch produced caricatures of Bloomerists smoking long cigars and sporting canes. The movement in London was _ short-lived, but some years later the Empress Eugénie appeared with a ‘new version of the idea-snowy ruffled pantalettes peeping coyly from a be-ribboned crinoline. But Mrs, Bloomer had given up the battle (Mr. Bloomer had apparently returned home) and was wearing a crinoline with heavy underskirts. She thought white pantaloons "somewhat shocking." So from 1870-1890 bloomers were not in evidence. Then, with the advent of the bicycle some form of divided skirt became necessary, and voluminous knickerbockers enjoyed a short vogue. But with the invention of chain and skirt guards ladies were enabled to cycle in ordinary street dress,

When Skirts Grew Longer Up to 1928 no form of divided skirt made its appearance except for highly specialised sports such as ski-ing. About this time,. however, shorts and slacks were first worn for beach wear. They must have been rather more becoming than the beach frock of the period which sported a waist-line round the hips, and probably shorts had some effect on the raising of the waistline to normal. At the end of the ’twenties skirts were growing steadily longer. Women missed the freedom which short skirts had given them in active sports. But so strong was the reaction against the modes of the late ’twenties that the short skirt became impossible even on the tennis court. In April, 1931, Senorita de Albarez played in divided skirts which came slightly below the knee, and two years later Alice Marble appeared in shorts above the knee. Now shorts are the accepted wear for tennis. And Now, Uniforms The vogue for trousers is steadily growing. It is even recognised by the Government, which made slacks the official uniform for the Women’s Transport Corps, No one would deny that trousers are in many ways- more practicable, but practical considerations have seldom influenced the trend of fashion. Apart from an occasional cocktail suit, trousers are confined to sports and holiday wear. Sports wear tends to stereotype itself and to become a uniform, aud uniforms are apart from the snain stream of fashion and thus have no permanent influence. It is therefore likely that the term "skirt" will still be applicable to woman twenty years from now. Mrs. Bloomer may have to wait a long time before all her reforms are adopted. Women now have the vote, in time trousers may become the accepted wear for all occasions, but it may be some time before we see men and. women alike proclaiming the delights of

temperance,

M.

I.