The Women's Dress Movement

Paper Summary:

This paper presents an examination of the women's dress movement. It is a history of the changes in women's clothing over the years from the feminists who stopped wearing corsets to those who pioneered the acceptance of women wearing trousers in society. It changed forever the attitude that society had about women's obligation to look good regardless of the cost to comfort and health.

From the Paper:

"The 1870's brought movement to change the undergarment instead of fighting society on the outer garment(Foster, 1984). "Emancipation Waists" were invented to give relief from the corset while still providing shape for the women who wore them. By the 1890's the crinoline was history and skirts began to drag on the ground. This became impossible to deal with as they picked up all sorts of trash, debris and dirt as they dragged. Instead of returning to the undergarments that had been so intrusive in the past the women of the nation began to shorten the skirts. Because health consciousness was in style the skirt becoming shorter was accepted more readily than it otherwise might have been.
With Amelia Bloomer's suggestion that the Turkish trouser would be more comfortable and the later acceptance of shorter skirts the dress reform movement was well underway and today women wear whatever they want to wear."

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