Bloomers

Bloomers is a word which has been applied to several types of divided women's garments for the lower body at various times. The original bloomers were an article of women's clothing invented by Elizabeth Smith Miller of Peterboro, NY but popularized by Amelia Bloomer in the early 1850s (hence the name, a shortening of "Bloomer suit"). They were long baggy pants narrowing to a cuff at the ankles (worn below a skirt), intended to preserve Victorian... more

Bloomers is a word which has been applied to several types of divided women's garments for the lower body at various times. The original bloomers were an article of women's clothing invented by Elizabeth Smith Miller of Peterboro, NY but popularized by Amelia Bloomer in the early 1850s (hence the name, a shortening of "Bloomer suit"). They were long baggy pants narrowing to a cuff at the ankles (worn below a skirt), intended to preserve Victorian decency while being less of a hindrance to women's activities than the long full skirts of the period (see Victorian dress reform). They were worn by a few women in the 1850s, but were widely ridiculed in the press, and failed to become commonly accepted (see 1850s in fashion). Bloomer was an insult made up by the newspapers of the time. British explorer Richard Francis Burton, travelling across the United States in 1860 noted that he saw only one woman (whom he called a "hermaphrodite") wearing bloomers. The costume was called the "American... less