The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-03-02
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
Washington, d. c.
SHALL WOMEN WEAR TROUSERS

Washington, d. c., Feb. 25.-Knick-
erbockers for women seem to be here
+ to stay-for a while at least. Women
could not be converted to boomers
when they were introduced by intel
iectu3l fe minists as a reform in dress
back in 1851 But now n few young
flappers stroll off the golf course in
Knockers and go down Main street to
get soda and the youth of the ma
ton acclaims the new style for street
i wear.
For half a dozen decades there have
been prophets who saw, or thought
they saw, trousers for women on the
horizon A few times indeed some
daring feminine souls did break away
from the tyranny of hoops and dust
trailing skirts to appear in boomers
or even trousers. But the experiments
generally fizzled out speedily.
There is an old letter written to the
Lowell Courier by a St. Louis woman
regarding four young women who
passed thru Missouri on their way
west wearing mems apparel. Their
father and brother accompanied them
and approved of the style.
They were from Philadelphia and
highly respectable" wrote the CORE
spondent, reporting on this startling
news item. Their suits on the boat
were fashionable and fine black dress
coats, black pants, buff vests. and hats
of glossy black. Their hair was cut
short"
SIlt dtSO their COnQuCL
on the boat was perfectly ladylike.
This was about the middle of the
nineteenth century, when boomers
were raising such a furore. Short
hair was also being advocated by
highbrOw women as being more COM
Portable and sensible. The idea was
that the short hair and boomers
would almost entirely relieve a woman
from the care of personal adornment.
1t was this angle of approach and not
the unattractiveness of boomers and
short hair which left the women of
America cold. Introduced as a re-
form, short hair and boomers were
laughed out of existence in short or
der.
Boomers Were Misnamed.
A flapper who could claim to be the
pioneer wearer of Knockers would
doubtless be proud of the title But
back in 1851, Amelia Bloomer Ia
mented the fact that the famous
bloomer garment should ever have
been associated with her name. She
spent endless time explaining that she
was not the first person to wear
boomers; that they should really be
, 'millers," as a Miss Miller was the
first wearer. and that she had been
connected with the project in it's early
days only by her articles favoring this
dress reform which appeared in the
Seneca Lily, a paper which she edited
Later, she explained she did appear
in boomers, but only because she be-
lieved it right to practice what she
preached However, in spite of Mrs.
Boomers protests the name stuck.
1t is interesting to note that this
garment which aroused so much ex-
element had about the same relation
to the skirts of the day that knicker-
bockers have to the skirts of 1922.
Women's dresses in 1851 were wide
ly denounced on the ground of be-
ing unhealthy They were long.
heavy, and full They trailed in the
dust TO catch germs. They gathered
mud from wet streets in rainy
weather, and then tapped about the
wearer's ankles to give them colds and
pneumonia. Yet no lady" dared lift
her voluminous skirts high enough to
clear the streets
Referring to this fashion one editor
declared that .. false modes has
caused many a young girl to die of
consumption
The first bloomers were long like
these skirts. Short boomers would
been hOOted off the streets without a
fighting chance-if it is possible to
imagine the girl OF the period ap-
pearing in them. The boomers which
upset the conservatives were full
ankle length affairs. A skirt con-
siderably longer than our popular knee
length specimen fell over them. The
effect was very Turkish, but to our
modern eye it would be about as dar-
ing as a deep sea diving outfit.
The War on Boomers.
Nevertheless. boomers were holly
denounced or as hotly approved by
everybody who talked, wrote, or lee
tured about them. They were taken
seriously by the undecorative blue
stockings, and so they failed to appeal
very much to the younger people who
might nave pOpularized them. They
died a lingering, natural death
Modern knickerbockers, like the old
boomers, have sought the level of the
skirt in vogue. Skirts go up and
down, but they have never before gone
so high. and they are now wagering
toward a drop. This was the psyche
logical moment-the first in centuries
when knickers might successfully
appear on the streets. They were only
a step from the knee length skirt and
so they attracted very little condem-
nation.
Knockers are now being worn for
sports on the streets in the daytime
for shopping. and in general for in
formal wear. Their popularity as a
permanent feature of women's dress
depends on their possibilities for
variety. So long as they have some
touch of novelty the chances are good
that women will continue to be inter-
ested in them One enthusiastic
wearer Of the tweeds insists that
knickers in soft silks of delicate
tunes for evening wear as a skirt.
She admits, however, that unless
knickers become firmly entrenched as
an accepted article of feminine ap-
parel. this sort of evening dress will
remain a vague dream.
The fact which makes It seem likely
that knickerbockers will remain popu-
lar is that they have been introduced
naturally, without any suggestion of
dress reform attached to them The
vogue of sports brought about snort
clothes, and these became popular be-
cause women were not frightened
away by the words sensible" or re
FORM Instead. they were attracted
by the newest styles which happened
to combine comfort with novelty. So
long as knickerbocI1ers continue 20 be
associated with the latest fashion by
reason OF new trimmings cut, or