‘Bloomers’ and the British world: dress reform in transatlantic and antipodean print culture, 1851–1950
Article
Article Title | ‘Bloomers’ and the British world: dress reform in transatlantic and antipodean print culture, 1851–1950 |
---|---|
ERA Journal ID | 7023 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | |
Author | Stevenson, Ana |
Journal Title | Cultural and Social History |
Journal Citation | 14 (5), pp. 621-646 |
Number of Pages | 26 |
Year | 2017 |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 1478-0038 |
1478-0046 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2017.1375706 |
Web Address (URL) | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14780038.2017.1375706 |
Abstract | The ‘bloomers’ are rarely considered beyond their 1851 origins in the United States and subsequent appearance in Britain. This article expands dress reform scholarship by analysing print culture elsewhere in the British world, specifically Australia and New Zealand. The colonial press manufactured controversy over this fashion – a perceived transgression of gender norms – even though antipodean women rarely sported the outfit. This article focuses on the dress reform lectures and writings of Amelia Bloomer, Caroline Dexter and Dr Mary Walker. While certain continuities resurfaced alongside the bloomer-like rational dress popularised in the bicycling culture of the 1890s, dress reform was largely deemed far less controversial by the turn of the twentieth century. |
Keywords | dress reform; gender; print culture; transatlantic; antipodean |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 430309. Gender history |
430323. Transnational history | |
430313. History of empires, imperialism and colonialism | |
Byline Affiliations | University of the Free State, South Africa |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q71x2/-bloomers-and-the-british-world-dress-reform-in-transatlantic-and-antipodean-print-culture-1851-1950
78
total views5
total downloads0
views this month0
downloads this month