BLOOMERS

Woman wearing bloomers, lithograph on a music cover by P.S. Duval, c. 1850; in the Library lower part of a rational dress for women advocated by Amelia Jenks Bloomer (q.v.) in 1850. The entire costume consisted of a short jacket, a skirt extending below the knee, and the bloomers, or loose Turkish trousers, gathered at the ankles. The innovation failed and was much mocked. The name survived, however, to be used for divided skirts, for the knickerbockers that women wore while riding bicycles in the craze for cycling of the 1890s, and for women's loose, baggy underwear.