The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-31
DROPPING The PETTICOAT.
UNSUsPECTED DRESS REFORM
NOW GOING ON.
Boomers Have Taken Permanent
Place in Every Feminine Ward
robe, and With Them Are Skele-
ton Corsets That Do Not Con6ne
the Figure.

If anybody doubts, simply because
long-dress skirts, picture hats and COR
sets are still in fashion, that dress re-
form has failed to make any real i'm
preston on the feminine habit, they
should only be allowed a peep into the
well-stocked wardrobe of a genuinely
modern and sensible girl or matron of
the moment. A few years ago chiff-
onier drawers and closet shelves would
have been found high piled. like snow
drifts, with amazingly flounced white
petticoatS, lace trimmed pantalon
long-skirted chemise and gay little
flannel pettiooats. Beautiful to look
at, but so expensive to buy, to have
Numbered, so clumsy to wear, and so
inadequate as a protection against the
cold, the heat, the mud or the rain, it
is hardly to be wondered at that wom-
en- no longer wear them at all.
The. fact is, except for occasions of
elaborate toilet, the petticoat, all saw
ing the one top skirt, has been ac-
tually swept out of existence, and the
knickerbocker idea has done it. No
woman, who processes to dress with
anything like regard for cleanliness
and comfort, wears the oldstyle petit
coat any longer. Her one ambition
now is to so regulate her costume that
everything except her dress skirt will
cling closely to her body. In cold
weather, when making toilet, she
draws down over her shoulders and
up over knees and hips a vest and
tights of silk stockinet or a weave of
mixed silk and wool. Over these go
her stays and then she is ready to get
into her stockings, which are up anu
held by a slender elastic cord, drawn
from a single hook in the front OF her
STAYS.
If dressing for indoors her next ma
neuver is to step into a pair of large,
easy silk boomers. They are made
onto deep yoke, that fits fiat over the
corset and hang full and slightly de-
pending at the knee. On one hip there
is a row of buttons and bands, and
buttons hold them at the knees, and
with these few preliminaries she is
ready for her dress. If a corset cover
is worn at all that is the merest skele-
ton bodice, with no skirts below the
waist line, and is just as often woven
of silk or thin Isle thread like the un-
der vest. When the hour comes to go
out the silk boomers are slipped off
and a pair of woollen knickerbockerS,
made exactly like a mans golf trou-
sers, but hung on a yoke, are drawn
on. They are not very full and hook
fiat on one hip, buttoning at both
knees. A pair of high bicycle shoes o.
soft brown gray or black suede leg
gins are buttoned up over the calf of
the legs. Upon this falls the dress
skirt and, for the first time, a woman
walking is in actual comfort. By ex-
changing chemise, pantalon, cotton
petticoat and flannel skirt for tights
and knickerbockers, neatness and per-
feet warmth have been gained. The
same woman might on a cold day
hang dozen petticoats from her
waist and some of them ponderous
padded ones, but she never could be
truly warm. She would carry just
triple the weight needed and be obliged
to lift yards of heavy material over
dirty mud puddles, where now her top
dress skirt is her only care.
In these days of petticoat independ-
ence a woman can pack a dozen