I agree, Maggie, if my conservative & proper ancestors wore'em so
early. . .
Perhaps the shocking aspect we hear so much about in fashion history
texts was when *fashionable* women wore them! Perhaps little worn by
the anonymous classes was considered shocking: only in the upper and
wanna-be classes.
== Marjorie Wilser
=:=:=:Three Toad Press:=:=:=
http://3toad.blogspot.com/
"Learn to laugh at yourself and you will never lack for amusement." --MW
On Mar 22, 2013, at 1:37 AM, Maggie Koenig wrote:
I'm starting to wonder if our ancestors found the idea of women in
pants as shocking as we think they did. I keep finding examples of
women wearing them in the 19th century. The "bloomer" costume as
reform dress, the bathing costumes, women in camping and hiking
situations, women on the westward trek, female mine workers in Wales
and other parts of Europe, utopian societies, fishwives in England
and female acrobatic performers. I have a feeling the more people
dig the more we will find out that there were just certain
situations where no one found it out of place to see a woman in pants.
I will grant you that in none of these cases are the women putting
on a pair of men's pants. They are wearing pants with a unique style
and construction.
Maggie Koenig
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 21, 2013, at 11:09 PM, Marjorie Wilser <the3t...@gmail.com>
wrote:
I was astounded to learn that my very proper great-great
grandmother and her daughters wore bifurcated garments on the
Oregon Trail-- in 1852, very soon after Amelia Bloomer was named as
their "creator." One of the older daughters wrote about their
experience and how the garments made walking the trail much easier
than it would have been in skirts. The stuff of family legend.
I suspect G-g-grandmother's prior pioneering experience influenced
her to make a radical fashion choice for Oregon. In 1836 she and
her husband had floated down the Allegheny on a raft; she mentions
having to traipse around a portage through weeds and wet with wind,
and how her skirts "switched" between her ankles, making walking
almost impossible.
G-g-grandmother was the wife of a preacher and Presbyterian
missionary- I was amazed that such a character would make use of
what was then rather a controversial garment. Perhaps she thought
nobody she knew would see her! -- they and their large family had
two wagons and did not join a "train."
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