Dress-Reform

Front matter

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by Abba Goold Woolson, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Table Of Contents.

Introduction

The following Lectures were delivered in Boston during the spring of the present year; and their purpose was to arouse women to a knowledge of physical laws, to show them how their dress defies these laws, and what different garments they should adopt. All, save the last, were written by female physicians of recognized ability and position; and the testimony thus given concerning the injuries inflicted by dress was felt to be authoritative and convincing. The lectures excited much attention at their first presentation; and, soon after, they were repeated by request in several adjoining cities. In compliance with the wishes of many hearers, and from a desire to extend the good work which they have already accomplished, they are now offered to the public in permanent form.

It is believed that their force and value will be enhanced by a statement of the circumstances which led to their preparation.

A little over a year ago, it became the duty of a committee of ladies, associated together, to take cognizance of the wide-spread and increasing dissatisfaction then existing in regard to woman's dress, to inquire into the many charges brought against it, and to determine what steps, if any, could be taken towards making it more healthful, artistic, and serviceable. With no preconceived theories to establish, these ladies set to work in good faith to ascertain precisely what was wrong, how to cure it, and how to render these cures acceptable and widely known. They consulted the experienced, fairminded women about them, corresponded with many in other cities, and made a patient study of the hygienic and aesthetic principles to which a proper dress must conform. The result of these inquiries was to convince them that the whole structure and the essential features of our present apparel are undeniably opposed to the plainest requirements of health, beauty, and convenience, and that any remedies, to be thorough, must concern themselves not merely with the external costume, but with every garment worn beneath it.

It seemed vital to the physical well-being of the whole nation that such remedies, when devised, should be generally and permanently adopted. And yet it was also evident that any reform in woman's dress, which should produce a marked and sudden alteration in her appearance, would find favor with but a few; and that these few, however heroic, must ultimately yield to the prejudices of the many. Thus the wisest efforts would result in defeat, unless due deference were paid to the force of custom and to the conventional standards by which every innovation must be judged.

It was accordingly deemed best to render the improvements that should be recommended, however thorough they might be, as unnoticeable to ordinary observers as it was possible to make them, without too great a sacrifice of health, comfort, and beauty to the fashions of the time. A striking change in the appearance could only be produced by some sudden change in the external costume; and, tried by physiological principles, that appeared by no means the most objectionable portion of the attire. Indeed, under intelligent guidance, it would admit of such modifications and selections as would eliminate its worst features, and accommodate it to a wholly novel hygienic suit worn beneath it. And a complete revolution in the structure and the adjustment of the ordinary under-dress was by far the most important thing to be gained. If that could be effected, the outward covering would in time take care of itself.

This view did not imply that a radical change in the entire dress was not in itself desirable, but that, whether desirable or not, it could not be imposed at the present time. A new costume, to be of lasting benefit, must appear in response to a general call, and to meet an enlightened and permanent desire. Any endeavor to introduce it to-day would only invite another defeat, to dishearten reformers in the future.

The wisdom of these conclusions had been demonstrated by experience. All previous attempts at dress-reform had been failures, because they sought to accomplish an immediate result by ill-considered and inadequate means. It was supposed that from bad clothes to good was but a step, and that the only preliminaries necessary were to devise the best possible apparel, and to invite everybody to adopt it. The most noticeable of these failures was the Bloomer costume; for, of all attempted revolutions in dress, it sought to bring about the most radical change in the appearance, and it came the nearest to effecting this end. Its originators, who were themselves intelligent and brave, proceeded on the assumption that great numbers of women throughout the country were not only dissatisfied with the old attire and longing for a better, but that they would at once adopt a better as soon as it should appear, however odd it might look, and from whatever source it should spring. Others were to follow their example, not from any deliberate and reasoning preference for the new over the old, but because the new should become the mode. When all had worn it and experienced its blessings, they would refuse to abandon it, and thus its reign would be made secure.

The result proved how mistaken were these assumptions. It was, indeed, true that many had grown restless under the burdens and restrictions of their dress. Of these, the more desperate seized the remedy offered, and defied consequences; but a greater number, who coveted the case and freedom it promised, lacked the courage to adopt it, and waited till it should establish itself in general favor. A few, regardless of higher claims, were attracted by its novelty, and hastened to lead a new style. But to the majority of thoughtless women it remained an object of indifference or of ridicule. With evils and their remedies they had little to do. For them, nothing could be right which was not fashionable; and nothing could be fashionable which had not come from Paris. They were strengthened in their hostility by that half of humanity whose favor they chiefly sought, and who, as they had never experienced the miseries of the old attire, could never appreciate the comforts of the new. Men sneered at the costume without mercy, and branded it as hideous. As made and worn by many of its followers, it was certainly not beautiful: but had it been perfection itself, it would have utterly perished; for arrayed against it were the force of ignorance and of habit, and the persistent prejudices to which they give rise. Those who devised it had taken no pains to humor long-established tastes, or to induce a candid consideration of the advantages it would confer. While overrating the intelligence and courage of their followers, they had underrated the strength of their opponents. Before the ridicule that assailed it, its converts soon disappeared. A few clung to it resolutely: but they learned at last that the mental discomfort it brought to its singular adherents outweighed the physical comfort it gave; and they, too, went back, with a protest, to the old, detested garb. Thus the Bloomer costume has perished, and is remembered only as a tradition. Certain benefits it brought; but these are not what it sought to confer. A permanent reform of the dress of American women it has not effected; and it has, unquestionably, delayed its advent. So signal a failure has tended to discourage all subsequent efforts in the same direction, and has confirmed the thoughtless in their servile copying of foreign models.

But, had the costume succeeded in establishing itself as our permanent and recognized dress, it would not have rendered further reform unnecessary. The improvements it made, though conspicuous and important, were superficial. It simplified the clothing, lessened its weight, and gave freedom to the limbs; but certain pernicious features were retained. So long as the trunk of the body is girded in the middle by bands, with too little clothing above and an excess of it below, so long will the greatest evil of our present dress remain untouched.

Notwithstanding the lessons of the past, many still fancy that the object desired can be reached by a short and easy path. When dress-reformers seek for some wise and sure method of advancing their work, they meet advisers who say: "Fashion is the one powerful ally whom you should strive to gain: concentrate your efforts upon her; hunt her to her mysterious lair,—to that secret haunt beyond the seas, where, in busy silence, this frivolous Hecate brews the deadly potions she forces to our lips. There, convert her to your views, and the cause is won. Since we must all obey her behests, it behooves us to see that they are the behests of knowledge and of common sense."

To which we reply, Fashion is too fickle to be a valuable coadjutor in any work. Continual change is necessary to her very existence; and the costumes she imposes, however acceptable and good, can be but the whims and vagaries of an hour. To intrust vital principles to her is to write them upon the sand. Neither is she as despotic as she may seem. Her mandates reflect the wishes of her subjects; and, when we rail against her, we rail against a secondary cause. If she deserves opprobrium from us, it is because we force her to accede to our demands. She stoops to conquer the American market. At home, in Paris or Berlin, she amuses herself with the invention of ever-fresh absurdities of style; but they are for duchesses and queens, whose daily lives are of little value to the world or to themselves, and who can afford to give their time to the display of costly follies. We are a nation of carnest workers and of plain republicans; yet no absurdities that she conceives for others are absurd enough for us. We bid her send to our shores only her last and wildest conceits, and to add to them an extra touch. If she has delicate fabrics, we wish to wear them in our changeable climate; we require her to lengthen our trains, that we may drag them, on hurried errands, through unswept streets; to load our skirts with ornament, that we may bind them about our feeble frames; and to pinch and plait the slender bodices in which we do housework, tend shop, and lift unruly children. Fashion exclaims, "Mon Dieu! what glorious creatures these Americans are! They abound in money, and they adore my caprices. I must give them their hearts' desire!"

It is not against her power that we should strive, for she is more catholic in taste than her devotees, and more concessive to the requirements of reason. She now offers us good styles as well as bad; and that we adopt the bad rather than the good is not because of any inexorable necessity against which we hopelessly contend, but because, of our own free will, we prefer the worst that she can devise.

Moreover, she controls but a small portion of the domain of dress. The worst evils we experience are beyond her power to affect. It is for her to modify the outer costume, and to vary its countless details; but with the abiding and essential structure of the whole attire she has nothing to do. And what are a few ruffles more or less, a fitful change in the trifles of finish and trimming, to the inequalities of temperature, the burdens and the compressions, which our dress in every one of its many forms must inflict? They are but mint, anise, and cummin, compared with the weightier matters of physical laws perpetually broken by an established and unvarying style of senseless underwear, which has been handed down from generation to generation, and which we have all accepted from our mothers and grandmothers as the legacy of Fate, asking no questions as to its utility, and dreaming of nothing else as possible.

What is needed, then, is not to assail Fashion, but to teach Hygiene,—to awaken women to a consciousness of the injuries that follow the wearing of their present garments, and to demonstrate that it is in their power so to modify this tight, heavy, and complicated style of apparel as to increase the strength, ability, and happiness of themselves and of their children. Only through a general indifference to Nature's laws has a steady adherence to suicidal fashions been possible in the past. To remove such indifference should be the primal endeavor of any reformers who desire to lay the foundations for a broad and beneficent work.

In accordance with these views, the Association, of which mention has been made, took measures, early in the present year, for the public delivery of a series of free lectures to women, concerning the structure of their dress, and the important natural laws with which it conflicts. From a belief that no views would be so intelligent, and no words so effective, as those of experienced female physicians, a number of regularly educated and able members of the medical profession were selected, and urged to speak upon this theme. Most of them were personally unknown to the members of the Association; and all were chosen solely on account of their manifest fitness for the task. One has been for thirty years a well-known and successful practitioner, and during that period has had a wide acquaintance with the physical sufferings of her sex. Another is President of the Ladies' Physiological Institute,—a large and honorable society, and for a long time has taken charge of an important dispensary at the North End. Two are regular professors, and one a lecturer, in the Medical Department of the new Boston University; and all are practising physicians of good repute. The invitation extended to them they accepted without hope of recompense, and simply from a benevolent desire to stay the tide of misery and weakness which they are daily called upon to observe.

The lectures were not intended to be a connected course, but a scrics, where all should be kindred in scope, and each one complete in itself. There was, therefore, no assignment of any special topic to any special lecturer; nor did the lecturers hold any consultation beforehand, either together or with the Association, as to what should be said. The general theme assigned was Dress, as it affects the Health of Women;" and the physicians were left to advance whatever assertions and opinions might seem to them good. Those for whom they spoke had no hobbies to present, no théories to uphold their purpose was simply to obtain such a public presentation of facts concerning the dress of women as should command attention and induce reform. Thus the papers, when read, were as fresh to them as to any of the audience.

The entire freedom of expression which this plan secured might have been supposed to result in a wide dissimilarity of views. But, as if with intentional concurrence, these several physicians, of different experience, education, and schools, agreed, not only in general statements, but in the specification of the minutest details; and these statements were also in perfect unison with the conclusions to which the Association had previously been led.

The plan upon which the series had been given, and the uniformity of belief which it developed, implied, of course, some repetitions; but these were to be welcomed as evidences of the truth of what was said. It had not been the aim of the speakers to propound startling facts or singular opinions, but, without technical terms or learned speculation, to bear such plain, direct testimony to a few vital truths as should carry conviction to the minds of their hearers. Judging by the crowded and cager audiences that assembled to hear them, and the inquiries and endeavors subsequently put forth in the cause of reform, these efforts to benefit others met with a cordial and earnest response.

The claims of the physiologist were of such surpassing importance, that only one lecture in the series was devoted to the need of reform from an æsthetic point of view. In the closing paper, considerations of beauty, economy, and fitness received some recognition.

For women who are already convinced of the evils of their present dress, and who desire to provide for themselves a better, an Appendix has been prepared, in which will be found some explicit and practical suggestions in regard to the radical improvements that are capable of ready adoption to-day. It offers no regulationsuit for all to accept, irrespective of peculiar needs and preferences; but, by defining clearly the principles upon which a proper dress should be constructed, and by presenting a variety of forms in which such principles may be embodied, it seeks to avoid those unnecessary limitations upon individual freedom which would be unwise if they were not futile.

Lecture 1

That there is a growing discontent among women in regard to the clothes they wear, none can dispute, save those who having cars hear not. Whence arises this unrest, that, like a great billow, has broken over the land? Its origin can be distinctly traced to our growth: we have become women, and we desire to put away childish things.

When laws made by our forefathers are outgrown, when they are found to clog the wheels of progress, they are modified or rescinded, or they stand as dead letters upon the statutes. If, with enlarged spheres of action, the styles of dress imposed upon us by the demi-monde fashion-mongers of Paris, prove wholly insub- servient to our needs, why accept them? Old-time superstitions are crumbling from under us in all directions. We begin to rejoice in the privilege, slowly accorded us, of thinking for ourselves, and of living true to our highest ideal of right. Possessed of ripened judgments and of justly matured opinions, we shall never be content so long as we are ruled in any direction by a merciless dictator. We have long since ceased to pay willing homage to this foreign despot, Fashion; and now, strengthened by the will and voice of many, the protest against her decrees has become so potent that we begin to rejoice in the hope of soon being able to consult cur own individual tastes, needs, and conveniences in dress, as in other matters that pertain to our every-day life, without being a target for ridicule or for scorn.

Wherever the Gospel of Dress-Reform has been preached it has found waiting disciples. Encouraged to believe that the time had come for union of effort in this direction, an association of ladies was formed in Boston and in New York a year since, which has been doing a good work in ferreting out the Protean forms of evil connected with dress, and in suggesting remedies for the same.

The association has not aimed at any radical changes in the externals of dress, save such as pertain to greater simplicity, to a convenient length of skirts, to less trimming, and hence to less weight. Much has been done to call attention to the modelling of undergarments, as well as to the material of which they are made. Several practical inventions for the suspension of clothing from the shoulders, for the lessening of the number of garments worn, and at the same time for the insuring of greater warmth, are the outgrowth of recent investigations. In order to have positive hygienic evidence brought to bear upon the ills entailed by improper dress, the association has arranged to have a series of lectures delivered in our city by women physicians, and it is the first of these which I have the honor of delivering to you this afternoon.

The subject has been canvassed from so many points of view, that it would seem a hopeless task to add to it one thought more of interest, did we not realize that in this busy work-day world of ours, where each is hurried by the duties assigned him, it often occurs that the vital interests pertaining to self are overlooked. The man who lives within easy access of Niagara may never visit that phenomenon of nature; the grandest works of art are often little known by those born and bred near them, and so it may be in our familiar relation with self. We are prone to await a convenient season in which to acquaint ourselves with the laws of our being; and it not unfrequently happens that the fleshy tabernacle crumbles, totters, and falls before the mind has fully recognized the necessity of a harmonious relationship between soul and body.

One of the great blessings that the nineteenth century confers is that of associated effort. In the solving of social and scientific problems, we move in battalions; and when a victory is won, be it in Sitka or in Africa, the electric wire flashes an instantaneous announcement of it to the whole world. The boiling of Mother Watt's tea-pot, and the observation of it by her son James, enable us to-day to ride upon old ocean with the speed we do, and to bring within comfortable access our most distant shores. However insignificant the beginnings of effort seem, our vision is too limited to see in the dim vista of the future the final results.

In presenting to you some thoughts upon the subject of dress, than which I trust to convince you few are more vital, I do not desire you to accept my ipse dixit of right or of wrong; but I hope you will probe the facts presented, and, if they appeal to your common-sense and reason as truths, that you will heed them, not alone for your own good, but that your influence may go forth as a help and guide to others.

Converts to truth are variously affected: the scales fall from the eyes of one, and he says in his heart that which he sees is true; but he lisps his convictions to no one. Another preaches the glad tidings that, whereas he was blind, now he sees; but he acts as before. A third stands out like a bas-relief upon the flat surface of society, and lives the truth his soul has received. How stagnant would have become the streams of progress, if each believer had consulted his own individual comfort and ease! Boston might rock her cradle of Liberty to-day, and sing lullabies to her progeny of Freedom, with millions of fettered slaves in the land; but the conviction of wrong stamped itself upon the soul of a few, and they proclaimed it without thought of selfinterest or of hindrance. There was principle to be maintained, and they moved on beneath its guidance till the bondmen were free.

Can my lady of leisure, who sits in her boudoir to-day with no imperative call to face the blinding snow or pelting rain, who can spend her mornings in dishabille, who can command carriage and horses to carry her dress-appendages,—can she look out from her damask-hung windows upon the hurried throng of business women, going early to the duties of the day, and returning late to their homes, and say there is no need of dress-reform?

If two women were to ascend Mount Washington, the one in a porte-à-chaise carried by four men, and the other on foot, would the former be justified in condemning the latter because she complained of the weariness and hindrance that the false burdens of fashion entail upon her?

In America there seems to be a general rage for a showy exterior, regardless of fitness of time, place, or circumstance. There are few lines of dress demarcation here to distinguish mistress from maid; and while the one enjoys a large share of favor, based, it may be, wholly upon externals, is it any wonder that the other apes her, even though it prove a hard-earned folly?

When I recently asked a young woman, who earns eight dollars per week, and pays seven dollars for her board and washing, what she thought would be the most effective way to help working girls into more practical, healthful, and economical modes of dress, her reply was, "Induce women of wealth and of position to adopt in their changes of style only those things that are comfortable and sensible, and we shall follow as they lead." It may be said that this is as absurd as if we should declare that because the poor cannot dwell in fine houses the rich shall not have them. I do not consider the two cases parallel. No doubt much of the extravagant luxury of modern palaces might well be dispensed with but in matters of dress it is health and morals that we wish to elevate; and no one has a right, measured by the highest law, to lead others astray, even by example. Offences must needs come, but woe unto him through whom they come! None can deny the moral side of this momentous question. If health and help ever reach us, it must come from above downwards. Women in high places, those upon whom are laid the weighty responsibilities of position, of wealth, and of influence, need but the strength of resolve and the force of action to stay this tide of extravagance and this perilously increasing physical degeneracy that over-dress is largely responsible for.

We scarcely fail in our daily peregrinations to note the deference paid to fine clothes. The plainly dressed, hard-working woman enters a horse-car, laden perhaps with bundles, and she is left to stand; while the woman whose garments are modelled after the latest fashion-plate, whose jewels are adjusted to show themselves off to the most glaring advantage, is very sure to arouse the latent gallantry in some male heart, and this secures her a ready scat. He may find that good clothes and good breeding are not counterparts, for his courtesy may not receive the simple acknowledgment of "Thank you, sir."

Men are excellent theorizers upon the absurdities of dress; but when a practical application of their theories is made by their wives, daughters, or sisters, few are found brave enough to stand by and encourage these ladies to wear only such garments as are conducive to health and comfort.

Who that listened last winter to the painful cough of a celebrated prima donna upon the operatic stage could have failed to condemn the unjust demands of custom, which compelled that artist to trail behind her, as a graceful appendage, yards of soiled satin, thus rendering every movement that should have been one of freedom and of grace most painfully labored and affected? While her uncovered body was exposed to the prurient eyes of the world, at the risk of health and life, her stalwart male supporter, whose arm would have given a greater girth than her pinched waist, was dressed in thick velvet garments, and over these was thrown a loose, warm cloak. The next day the papers announced that the prima donna would be unable to appear owing to illness. Had she died, what pathetic sentiments would have been penned upon the physical frailty of woman!

That uniformity of temperature is desirable, is readily apparent from the fact that when any portion of the body becomes unduly heated for a prolonged period of time, congestion of the part is liable to follow; and when, on the other hand, a part is exposed to cold, the capillaries become contracted, the blood is thrown within, and any organ is liable to become engorged. The one which is weakened for any cause suffers most quickly and severely; and, unless an equilibrium of circulation is soon restored, inflammation follows. The myriad-mouthed pores of the skin, two thousand of which are found to occupy a square inch of surface, become closed, the tubuli leading from them become clogged, the carbonic acid the pores exhaled is retained, the oxygen they drank up is withheld, and the acration of the blood then becomes wholly the work of the lungs. The frequently congested state of these organs during a cold is the result.

In woman's dress, from six to ten thicknesses are found, as a rule and not as an exception, to encase the thoracic region, while the lower extremities are covered, more frequently than otherwise, with but one thickness, and that of cotton. Under such circumstances, an effort to obtain proper warmth is usually made by adding an extra supply of skirts, although these garments contribute much more to pressure about the waist, weight upon the hips, and undue heat in the kidneys and abdominal organs, than to warmth in the lower extremities. But it is in these lower parts of the body that heat is most needed, because there the circulation of the blood is less active, and an under-current of air around them is apt to produce chills.

Let a woman step from a temperature of, perhaps, seventy degrees within doors, to zero without, and stand on the street corner five minutes for a car, while the breeze inflates her flowing skirts till they become converted into a balloon: the air whizzes through them and beneath them, and a wave of cold envelops the entire lower portion of the body. Then let her ride for an hour in a horse-car, with ankles wet from drabbled skirts, and exposed to a continual draft of air: of course her whole system is chilled through; and it cannot be otherwise than that a severe cold will follow as the penalty for such exposure.

A woman accompanied by her husband came to consult me on one of the dreariest days of last winter. Her teeth chattered with the cold; and you will not wonder at it, any more than I did, when I tell you that she had on cloth gaiterboots, thin stockings, loose, light cotton drawers, two short skirts of flannel, a long one of waterproof, another of white cotton, an alpaca dressskirt and an over-skirt. This made seven thicknesses, multiplied by plaits and folds, about the abdomen. Each of these skirts was attached to a double band; and thus the torrid zone of the waist was encircled by fourteen layers. All this weight and pressure rested upon the hips and abdomen; and the results were—what they must be, if this pressure has been long continued—a displacement of all the internal organs; for you cannot displace one, without in some way interfering with another. Here was this woman, with nerves as sensitive as an aspenleaf to external influences, clad so that every breath of cold chilled her to the marrow, the neck and shoulders protected by furs, the hands and arms pinioned in a muff, the head weighted down by layers of false hair, and the legs almost bare; while her husband, the personification of all that was vigorous in health, was enveloped, as he told me, from head to foot in flannel. His every garment was so adjusted that it not only added to the heat generated by the body, but helped to retain it. I question whether that hale, hearty man would not have suffered twinges of neuralgia or of rheumatism, had he been exposed, as his wife was, to the severity of our atmospheric changes. Even in summer these changes are sudden and severe; and then men are usually clothed in woollen garments, only a trifle thinner and lighter than those worn in winter; while women are often decked in nothing but muslin, and are chilled by every sudden nor'-easter.