Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton Circa 1881
On July 19, 1848, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton held a two-day Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca, New York. The Seneca Falls Convention provided a platform for “the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women.” At the gathering, Stanton spoke about women’s equality, reading the Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances, which she wrote in the days prior and based on the same format of the Declaration of Independence. Not only was this the first women’s rights convention in the U.S., but the historic event introduced the women’s suffrage movement in America.
Amidst the discussions of women’s rights at the Seneca Falls Convention, pioneering feminists were also beginning another conversation around the women’s dress of the Victorian era. The mid-19th century costume was marked by corseted waists, cumbersome hoops, and floor-length skirts. Women’s rights advocates found these styles socially and economically controlling. Anthony once said, “I can see no business avocation, in which a woman in her present dress can possibly earn equal wages with man.”
The dress reform movement began in 1851. In an act of rebellion from the Victorian fashions, feminists began incorporating Bloomers (named for Amelia Bloomer, a reformer and magazine editor of The Lily) into their wardrobes. Women’s legs were considered taboo, and while Bloomers were no-less revealing than floor-length dresses, the style was condemned. Both men and women claimed that unattractive women wore Bloomers to attract male attention, or that women dominant at home wore them to put their proclivities on display. rage
By 1857, Bloomers fell out of fashion. Women’s dress reform never regained the initial momentum, as feminists wanted to focus on more pressing political and social issues. However, by the 1890s, women’s fashion progressed to higher skirt hemlines for walking, the abandonment of hoops and bustles, and the acceptance of bloomers for exercise.
An article published in The Women’s Journal in 1870, noted that dress reform “is dependent upon and must come after suffrage.” This statement proved true, as it was after women gained the right to vote in 1920 that they could wear trousers in public and sport shorter and shorter hemlines.
2019 Rodarte Fall/Winter Show
Over 170 years after the Seneca Falls Convention began the discussion on women’s rights, designers are returning to the fashions of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s lifetimes. Victorian-inspired designs were prevalent on the Fall/Winter 2019 runways. With these styles reflective of a time when women held little social and political power, current designers remind us of the progress made and the fashion freedoms that followed.
1848 Convention Commemorative Pin
With this decade coming to an end, and seeing the differences from 2000 to 2020 (can you say spandex athleisure!!), I wonder what fashions will be at the end of the next??