The story of bloomers and how this humble garment
became a feminist fashion statement.
Women's clothing in the mid 19th Century was cumbersome
and heavy.
Sometimes weighing as much as 11 kilos,
that's the same weight as a large watermelon.
Imagine carrying that around all day.
Outfits included crinolines, hooped skirts, bustles, bodices
and tightly laced corsets.
These tight, uncomfy clothes caused all kinds of health problems,
including fainting, squashed organs and deformities.
In 1851, US activist Elizabeth Smith Miller,
started wearing loose, light trousers, gathered at the ankles.
These were similar to Turkish trousers
and were known as Turkish dresses.
Her suffragist friend, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, decided to wear some
when she visited Amelia Jenks Bloomer,
the publisher of the first American newspaper for women in the US,
The Lily.
Amelia Bloomer loved the idea of this new liberating garment so much,
that she began to wear the trousers herself and promote them
in her magazine, even publishing instructions on how to make them.
The press ended up calling this new outfit the bloomer dress.
Later this was abbreviated to simply bloomers.
The idea of women wearing trousers caused outrage at the time,
they were considered strictly men's wear.
Some women were even arrested when wearing them.
Amelia Bloomer said,
"I stood amazed at the furore I had unwittingly caused.
Some praised, and some blamed, some commented
and some ridiculed and condemned."
Bloomers became a symbol for the women's rights movement,
leading to the bloomer dress also called the freedom dress.
And Amelia herself becoming a prominent figure
in the US suffragette movement.
There were many styles of bloomers, often combined with dresses,
and they eventually became shorter and tighter,
before falling out of favour.
Only to reappear in the early 20th Century,
worn by women taking part in sports, including the craze for cycling.
You'd think a women wearing trousers would be no big deal these days,
but look at how much chatter and debate there was around
Hillary Clinton and her famous pantsuit
when she was running for US president.
Amelia Jenks Bloomers' two legged legacy
strides on into the 21st Century.
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