DON’T GET YOUR BLOOMERS IN A WAD
Amelia Jenks Bloomer was a noted Women’s Rights advocate, but that isn’t the only aspect of her life worthy of note.
She was born in 1818 in Homer, New York, to Ananias Jenks and Lucy (Webb) Jenks. She grew up in a family of modest means, attended a local school (Homer Academy on the Village Green). for a few years, became a devoted Episcopalian, and lived a somewhat unremarkable childhood. In her later teens she taught school for a short time. At seventeen, she decided to move in with her recently-wed sister, Elvira, in Waterloo, New York. A year later she took a position as live-in-governess for the Oren Chamberlain family in Seneca Fall, NY.
Photo source: www.pinterest.com/507710557976609614
Amelia Jenks Bloomer was a noted Women’s Rights advocate, but that isn’t the only aspect of her life worthy of note.
She was born in 1818 in Homer, New York, to Ananias Jenks and Lucy (Webb) Jenks. She grew up in a family of modest means, attended a local school (Homer Academy on the Village Green). for a few years, became a devoted Episcopalian, and lived a somewhat unremarkable childhood. In her later teens she taught school for a short time. At seventeen, she decided to move in with her recently-wed sister, Elvira, in Waterloo, New York. A year later she took a position as live-in-governess for the Oren Chamberlain family in Seneca Fall, NY.
Photo source: www.pinterest.com/507710557976609614
In 1840, at the age of twenty-two, she married Dexter Bloomer, a law student and owner of a newspaper, The Seneca Falls County Courier. Her husband not only encouraged her to write for his newspaper, but he even gave up drinking as part of the Temperance Movement.
At thirty, she attended the first women’s right convention held in Seneca Falls in 1848, although she did not participate. A few months later founded her own temperance newspaper, The Lily, for women by women because, some sources say, her husband’s paper didn’t address women’s issues adequately. She is considered the first woman to own, operate, and edit a publication for women. Photo source: www.pinterest.com/507710557976609614
At thirty, she attended the first women’s right convention held in Seneca Falls in 1848, although she did not participate. A few months later founded her own temperance newspaper, The Lily, for women by women because, some sources say, her husband’s paper didn’t address women’s issues adequately. She is considered the first woman to own, operate, and edit a publication for women. Photo source: www.pinterest.com/507710557976609614
The Lily started out as a vehicle for the Seneca Falls Ladies Temperance Society, but in a few years had it expanded to a circulation of 4,000 readers and had a broad mix of contents ranging from cooking to social issues.
Amelia Bloomer, herself, is described as a small, slight, dark-haired woman with good features and a pleasant expression. Timid and retiring by nature, she was a sternly serious person, seemingly lacking in any sense of humor.
Okay. By now you know she was a Women’s Rights advocate, and the first woman to found and operate a women’s publication. So far, so good.
Photo sources:commons.wikimedia.org/AmeliaBloomer
Amelia Bloomer, herself, is described as a small, slight, dark-haired woman with good features and a pleasant expression. Timid and retiring by nature, she was a sternly serious person, seemingly lacking in any sense of humor.
Okay. By now you know she was a Women’s Rights advocate, and the first woman to found and operate a women’s publication. So far, so good.
Photo sources:commons.wikimedia.org/AmeliaBloomer
THE REBIRTH OF AN IDEA
The manner in which a name becomes attached to an idea or physical product it often not clear cut and can be misleading. Amelia Bloomer is no different. She did not invent the idea of women wearing pants or split skirts. That goes way back, and I’m not going there.
I found several versions of how Amelia got involved in the issue of bloomers, but Wikipedia had the clearest explanation I could find which was corroborated by other sources.
“In 1851, New England temperance activist Elizabeth Smith Miller adopted what she considered a more rational costume: loose trousers gathered at the ankles, like women’s trousers worn in the Middle East and Central Asia, topped by a short dress or skirt and vest.
Miller displayed her new clothing to Elizabeth Cady Stanton (women’s rights activist), her cousin, who found it sensible and becoming, and adopted it immediately. In this garb Stanton visited Bloomer, who began to wear the costume and promote it enthusiastically in her magazine. Articles on the clothing trend were picked up in The New York Tribune. More women wore the fashion which was promptly dubbed The Bloomer Costume or “Bloomers”.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Bloomer
The split skirt bicycle or horseback riding outfit Amelia in her Bloomer Outfit News clipping of Elizabeth Cady Stanton wearing
Photo source: genealogylady.net/bifurcated-skirt/ Hulton Archive/Getty Images the controversial bloomer costume
www.britannica.com/bio/Amelia-Bloomer http://www.victoriana.com/bloomer-costume/
The manner in which a name becomes attached to an idea or physical product it often not clear cut and can be misleading. Amelia Bloomer is no different. She did not invent the idea of women wearing pants or split skirts. That goes way back, and I’m not going there.
I found several versions of how Amelia got involved in the issue of bloomers, but Wikipedia had the clearest explanation I could find which was corroborated by other sources.
“In 1851, New England temperance activist Elizabeth Smith Miller adopted what she considered a more rational costume: loose trousers gathered at the ankles, like women’s trousers worn in the Middle East and Central Asia, topped by a short dress or skirt and vest.
Miller displayed her new clothing to Elizabeth Cady Stanton (women’s rights activist), her cousin, who found it sensible and becoming, and adopted it immediately. In this garb Stanton visited Bloomer, who began to wear the costume and promote it enthusiastically in her magazine. Articles on the clothing trend were picked up in The New York Tribune. More women wore the fashion which was promptly dubbed The Bloomer Costume or “Bloomers”.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Bloomer
The split skirt bicycle or horseback riding outfit Amelia in her Bloomer Outfit News clipping of Elizabeth Cady Stanton wearing
Photo source: genealogylady.net/bifurcated-skirt/ Hulton Archive/Getty Images the controversial bloomer costume
www.britannica.com/bio/Amelia-Bloomer http://www.victoriana.com/bloomer-costume/
 |  |  |  |
The Lily actively promoted the idea of a change in women’s dress standards that would be more comfortable and less restrictive for regular activities. She believed women’s clothing should accommodate the individual wants and needs and promote health, comfort, and usefulness, making personal adornment a secondary factor. The style, dubbed as the Bloomer Costume, suited Amelia, and she designed outfits and enthusiastically promoted them.
Photos source: http://www.victoriana.com/bloomer-costume/ Photo Source: https://studylib.net/doc/5765980/amelia-bloomer
Photos source: http://www.victoriana.com/bloomer-costume/ Photo Source: https://studylib.net/doc/5765980/amelia-bloomer
 |  |  |
Even though many women liked the idea and wore the outfit, over the next few years the design concept took so much criticism in the press and harassment on the streets, that the suffragettes and Women’s Rights advocates, including Bloomer, stopped wearing it. The following is a link to a cartoon typical of those published (probably by men) making fun of the style: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/women-smoking-and-wearing-bloomers-draw-stares-from-passers-news-photo/3164973
Amelia Bloomer didn’t come up with the idea, but her designs and promotion of the outfit in her magazine brought it to the attention of American women and the press, and I, for one, believe we owe her a debt of gratitude and recognition for popularizing the concept that women deserved to be more comfortable in their clothing.
THANKS FOR THE PANTS
By 1850 women’s fashions were relatively conservative compared to the overdone fashions seen in the Victorian era. Simple day dresses and bosom-flattening corsets were the order of the day. Amelia Bloomer wore such fashions.
This is what a woman went through to just get dressed in the morning. Don’t forget, not everyone had maids and servants, and many women had the same kinds of responsibilities as women do today such as washing clothes, caring for children, cooking dinner, and cleaning house. Doing all that in full skirts and corset couldn’t have been comfortable even in an everyday working dress.
Source of photos: photo source: sovereignhilledblog.com/gold-rush-undies-womens
 |  ◄1. Dressing consisted of donning various layers of apparel. First she put on leg coverings called pantalettes. After all, the legs needed to be covered should the skirt rise enough to expose the legs. On top of that went a light but long shirt called a chemise. ► 2. Over that went the tight corset stiffened with wood, ivory, bone or whale baleen to create an hourglass figure (even when one wasn’t there to start with). Often corsets were pulled so tight the woman had trouble breathing. The corsets were also responsible for back problems, curvature of the spine, and headaches. |
 ◄3. That still wasn’t enough! Over that women wore petticoats to fill out their skirts until the “crinoline” or “caged petticoat" became the French fashion in the 1850s. ►4. With a caged petticoat Instead of several cloth petticoats, the ampleness of the skirt resulted from a stiff frame with hoops made of cane, rope, spring steel and whale baleen sewn into a petticoat or over one or two petticoats. Try bending over in that if you want to show some leg and your behind. Over the hoop the woman would put on another couple of petticoats, and finally the dress with wide enough skirts to present a fire danger. Not joking. That was a real problem. |  |
No wonder Amelia Bloomer advocated for changes in women’s fashion.
It is not hard to intuit, however, where the idea came from (besides other cultures). Take another look at the first layers: pantalettes and chemise. Women in the 1850s, at some time or other, must have walked around the room in the first layer of undies and felt the difference. Here's all you have to do. Using fabric for outer garments for the chemise and pantalettes, belt the waist of the chemise (but not so tightly), fluff out the skirt and add a petticoat or two, and take in the ankles of the pantalettes (so they can’t push up on the leg) and -- Ta Da! You have the Bloomer outfit.
▼ Photo source:www.pinterest.com/383250405170995611
It is not hard to intuit, however, where the idea came from (besides other cultures). Take another look at the first layers: pantalettes and chemise. Women in the 1850s, at some time or other, must have walked around the room in the first layer of undies and felt the difference. Here's all you have to do. Using fabric for outer garments for the chemise and pantalettes, belt the waist of the chemise (but not so tightly), fluff out the skirt and add a petticoat or two, and take in the ankles of the pantalettes (so they can’t push up on the leg) and -- Ta Da! You have the Bloomer outfit.
▼ Photo source:www.pinterest.com/383250405170995611
 |  |  |  |
The Basic concept is not that different from styles still popular in the 21st century, although some of the designer fashions would probably send Amelia Bloomer leaping out of her grave screaming … along with some of the rest of us.
Design by Suzy Menkes Design by Kirsten Sinclair - Photo source:
Photo source: www.vogue.fr/suzy-menkes/psychedelia https://www.glamour.com/gallery/biggest-fashion-trends-2019
Design by Suzy Menkes Design by Kirsten Sinclair - Photo source:
Photo source: www.vogue.fr/suzy-menkes/psychedelia https://www.glamour.com/gallery/biggest-fashion-trends-2019
 |  |  |
Amelia Jenks Bloomer is recognized as an eminent figure in the US suffrage movement, a forward thinker and advocate of change – both political and sartorial – some decades before Women’s Rights movement gained its drive. She encouraged women to think for themselves, but her name will always be remembered in relation to introducing the American public to the idea of women’s trousers. □
Sources:
https://www.biography.com/people/amelia-bloomer-9216245
https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/social-sciences-and-law/social-reformers/amelia-jenks-bloomer
https://www.accessible-archives.com/2012/10/new-historic-marker-honors-amelia-jenks-bloomers-childhood-home/
https://explorethearchive.com/15-important-women-in-historyZ
https://www.bing.com/search?q=amelia+bloomer+biography&form=EDGSPH&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&refig=ab28aab2972948e39aa3f6163aadb6ab&sp=1&qs=AS&pq=amelia+bloomer+&sc=8-15&cvid=ab28aab2972948e39aa3f6163aadb6ab&cc=US&setlang=en-US
https://www.biography.com/people/amelia-bloomer-9216245
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Bloomer
https://explorethearchive.com/biographies-of-famous-women
https://lynnwalsh.wordpress.com/tag/amelia-bloomer/
uipress.lib.uiowa.edu/bdi/DetailsPage.aspx?id=35
sadiegen.blogspot.com/2013/07/highlights-in-fashion-history-amelia.html
https://www.afterellen.com/general-news/532195-amelia-bloomer-introduced-first-gender-nonconforming-fashion-1851
https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/woman-suffrage/bloomer-amelia/
https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/lily-liberty-amelia-bloomer-200
https://www.accessible-archives.com/2012/10/new-historic-marker-honors-amelia-jenks-bloomers-childhood-home/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/114912227976517537/?lp=true
http://www.victoriana.com/category/fashion/
https://genealogylady.net/2015/10/18/fashion-moments-bifurcated-skirt/
https://www.history.com/topics/womens-rights/seneca-falls-convention
https://www.history.com/topics/womens-rights/seneca-falls-convention
https://theimpactofthefeministmovement.weebly.com/seneca-falls-convention.html
https://studylib.net/doc/5765980/amelia-bloomer
http://www.katetattersall.com/early-victorian-undergarments-part-4-pantelettes-pantalettes/
RSS Feed
