Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-15
AMELIA BLOOMER.s SUIT,
Celebrated Costume Worn for the
First Time Forty-EfEht Years Ago.

Celebrated Costume Worn for the
First Time Forty-EiEht Years Ago.
From the Chicago Inter-Occan.
Just forty-eight years ago today, on July
o. 1851. Mrs. Amelia Bloomer first wore
her now celebrated costume at a ball at
Lowell, Mass. The storm of wit and ridi-
cue that followed drove the boomers out
of existence within few months after its
invention. only to be revived forty years
later in modified for by the advent of the
bicycle and athletics among women, and to
be hailed one Of the most suitable and
useful of female dresses
The handsome young woman who aston
ished the guests at the Lowell ball with
her bold innovation was the editor of
journal called the Lily. published at Sene-
ca Falls, N. Y. She was woman of ideas.
evidently much in advance of her time. Her
magazine was devoted to temperance and
the enfranchisement of women, and had
attained in two years circulation of 1900
"a very handsome business for that day.
Mrs Bloomer for months before the Lowell
ball had advocated a change in woman's
dress for outdoor wear She took the pic
turesque dress of the Polish women as a
model, and wrote:
1--WE would have a skirt reach down to
nearly halfway between the ankle and the
knee and not made quite so full as is the
present fashion. Underneath this skirt
trousers moderately full. coming down to
the ankle (not instep), and there gathered
with an elastic band. The shoes or slip
pers should suit the occasion. For winter
or wet weather the trousers should also be
full, but come down into boot which
should rise three or four inches at least
above the ankle This boot should be
gracefully sloped at the upper edge and
trimmed with fur or fancfully embroidered,
according to the taste of the wearer. In
defense of the costume Mrs. Bloomer asks
bar o1ip eff 6eiiCacy requires that
the skirt should be long. why do our ladies
a dozen times day commit the fndehcacy
of raising their dresses to prevent their
dragging in the mud of the Streets!
Although Mrs. Bloomer had advocated
the dress for months. neither she nor any
other woman ventured to wear 1t until mn
ally the inventor herself appeared at the
ball in the cotton-spinning town. The
fragmentary accounts that have come
down of the event indicate that the sensa-
ton created shock all New England. But
the bloomer costume. as 1t was Immediate
ly called. spread. and papers in dozens OF
places noted that women wearing boomers
were seen on the streets. The fashion
magazines. of the day fastened to print
cuts of the new and startling style. Bloom
ers crossed the ocean and appeared in Lon
dom An American lady dressed In black
satin jacket skirt and trousers lectured in
London and urged the universal adoption
of the dress by her sex. In less than SIX
months boomers had become an issue in
social life but the force of public opinion
was against it. A storm of ridlcule was
raised on both sides of the Atlantic
Bloomer women were pictured in ludri-
crous connections in the American Illus
trated papers and in Punch. The brightest
writer's of the day found the dress fruit
fuI TOPIC for their pens, and in the pom
derous columns of the serious publications
it was denounced scandalous. In soma
towns In this country the authorities issued
orders to arrest women wearing the cos
tune, the chief objection to which today
would probably be that 1t was hideously
ugly. In other places women in boomers
had missiles thrown at them. The night
was too strong, and also. probably, the
dress was too unbecoming and in snort
time boomers had disappeared from the
public view.
Mrs Boomer however, for years didn't
give up the attempt to make the dress pop
ular. She sold her magazine, moved. to
Council Bluffs, Iowa, and went on the lee
t,,re platform advocating boomers and
temperance. She took part In advocating
the Iowa State Suffrage Association. and
was at one time its president In 1855 she
delivered before the members of the ter
ritorfal legislature of Nebraska. an eloquent
argument In favor of comforting the ballot
on women. She lectured on boomers all
over the west. and occasionally IN the east.
but without much result. The athletic gir
was not born until forty years later.