Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-03-02

Y "A
w bockers for women seem - be here to
w stay-for while at least. Woman
could not be converted to boomers when
they were introduced by intellectual fem1n1sts
as reform in dress back in 1851. But now
a few young flappers stroll off the golf course
in knickers and go down Main street to get
soda and the youth oe the nation acclaims the
new style for street wear.
For half a dozen decades there have been
prophets who saw, or thought they saw, trous-
ers 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 fiz-
zled out speedily.
There is an old letter written to the Lowell
Courier by st. Louis woman regarding four
young women who passed through 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 correspondent, re-
porting on this startling news item. Their
suits on the boat were fashionable and fine
black dress coats, black pants, buff vests, and
hats of glossly black. Their hair was cut
short"
She also added that their conduct on the
boat was perfectly ladylke
This was about the middle OF the nine
teenth century, when boomers were raising
such a furore. Short hair was also being ad-
vocated by highbrow women as being more
comfortable and sensible. The idea was that
tthe short hair and boomers would almost en-
tirely relieve woman from the care Of per-
sonal adornment. 1t was this angle of ap-
proach and not the unattractiveness Of bloom
ers and short hair which left the women OF
America cold. Introduced as REFORM
short hair and boomers were laughed out
of existence in short order
Boomers We're 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 lamented 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 Miss Miller
was the first wearer, and that she had been
connected with the project in its early days
only by her articles favoring this dress re-
form which appeared in the Seneca Lily, a
paper which she edited. Later, she explain
ed, she did appear in boomers, but only be-
cause she believed it right to practise what
she preached. However, in spite or Mrs.
Boomers protests the name stuck.
It is interesting to note that this garment
which aroused SO much excitement had about
the same relation to the skirts of the day
that knickerbockers have to the skirts or
1922.
Women's dresses in 1851 we're widely de-
nounced on the ground Of being unhealthy.
They were long, heavy, and full. They trail
ed in the dust to catch germs. They gather
ed mud from wet streets in rainy weather,
and them tapped about the wearers' 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 de-
clared that "a false modesty has caused many
young girl to die of consumption
The first boomers were long like these
skirts. Short boomers would have been
hooted off the streets without fighting
chance-if it is possible to imagine the girl
of the period appearing in them. The bloom
ers which upset the conservatives were full.
ankle length affairs. A skirt considerably
longer than our popular knee length spec1-
men fell over them. The effect was very
Turkish, but to our modern eyes it would be
about as darings as deep sea diving outfit.
The War on Boomers
Nevertheless, boomers we're hotly de-
nounced or as holly approved by everybody
who talked, wrote, or lectured about them.
They we're taken seriously by the undecora-
tive blue stockings, and so they failed to
appeal very much to the younger people who
might have popularized, them. They died
! 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 quite so high, and
they are now wavering toward a drop. This
was the psychological moment-the first in
| centuries-when Knockers might successful
! ly appear the streets. They were only
! step from the knee-length skirt and so they
| attracted very little condemnation.
Knockers are now being worn for sports,
! on the street in the daytime, for shopping,