FREEDOM IN DRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 237, 7 October 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

FREEDOM IN DRESS.

THE REVOLT OF WOMEN.

IHISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT.

(By ELEANOR NAXGLE.)

Insurgents in the feminine fashion tanks always have been more spectacular than numerous, but there haven't beer as few- of theso insistent individualists as one might think. Almost every age has produced at least one strongminded female who dramatically gave the lie to the statement that " women aie slaves to fashion." Strangely enough, the nineteenth . ccntury, when women were so painfully sheltered, so masterfully considered just tender little apple too fragile even to think, produced more of these insurgents than any period of feminine history. Ihe detour from the narrow road of fashion was set, of course, by Lady tiodiva, who on one startling occasion shocked the natives of Coventry bv simply saying "good-bye" to the whole boresume problem— at least for one day. Other women in the just-must-bc-dif-feient class haven't been so daring, although no one could accuse them of lacking a certain kind of courage. Expressions of disapproval liv flieir fellow women ranged from harsh words to hurled sticks and stones. The psychoanalyst might be able to explain the idea that impels Marlcne Dietrich to wear trousers. Is it a sartorial declaration of independence t Does she'really think they're more comfortable than skirts? Or more attractive? Or does she think about it at all? Docs she, perhaps, let the iim ffatigable press agent do the thinking while she does the posing? The faint odour of a publicity stunt clings to Miss Dietrich's affectation of masculine attire. Every inch of newspaper space counts in her profession, and trousers that conceal what are reputed to be tlio best legs in filmdom from the vulgar gazo earn lot 3 of column inches in print.

Whether ono of the most famous of her predecessors who threw off the yoke of fashion did so for publicity is extremely doubtful. Dr. Mary Walker, who took to trousers in the '40's, carried tho banner of dress reform. She wore mannish clothing for more than sixty years. Her father, something of a free soul, banned corsets for liis daughter; she never wore them, crusaded against them, and while still a youngster designed for herself a trousered costume that outraged the neighbours.

At 16 she studied anatomy and began in earnest a protest campaign against tho accepted dress for women of her time. Before Amelia Bloomer, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Stanton Cadv, and other exponents of radical dress reform had made even a ripple with their theories, Dr. Walker was wearing trousers —and she emphatically preferred that they be called "pants." Student of Medicine. Dress reform was not Mary Walker's only passion. She studied medicine in the face of general criticism and active hostility from tho male students. She lectured constantly, built up a practice, and was the first woman to be regularly enlisted as an army surgeon. She spent four years on the battlefields of the civil war, was exchanged as a prisoner of war for a man of her rank in the service, and was awarded a medal of honour for bravery and valuable service. A sign of her pride in this medal was that she always wore it.

Beforo Susan B. Anthony and other pioneers in woman's suffrage had stopped talking to find out quite what they wanted, Dr. Walker actually had attempted to cast a ballot claiming that right as a New York taxpayer. The attempt was frustrated when she was peremptorily ordered out of the polling place. And out she went, but not until after, womanlike, she had given the election officer a piece of her mind and a masterly lecture on what she thought of laws that permitted no one but male citizens to vote. Mary Walker's Prince Albert coat, black broadcloth trousers and high silk hat became a familiar costume in Washington, where she badgered senators and lobbied for her cause. She carried her crusade to London in 1806, startling the natives but effectively silencing public criticism by managing to be presented to Queen Victoria. Until her death she wore trousers and preached them. Origin of the Word Bloomers. A contemporary of Dr. Walker's, who did not achieve equal fame was Amelia Jenks Bloomer. Mrs. Bloomer did not inaugurate the "bloomer" vogue, but she popularised it to a certain extent, and in some obscure fashion her name was fiven to the costume. Amelia was a sensation in the '50's, her feminine interpretation of the trouser fashion outraging the populace almost as much as did Dr. Walker's entirely masculine outfits. Mrs. Bloomer's only concession to masculinity was full Turkish trousers gathered at the ankles and covered to the knees by a voluminous skirt. To tho horror of the health wing of the dress reform army she clung to the corset, the diabolical tight waist, and narrow, pointed shoes. The bloomer vogue, at least in its original form, died a "natural death. Bloomers were retained as an article of feminine apparel, of course; but they never took the place, except when a part of a cycling costumc, of anv skirts but petticoats. It "was no burning desire to rescuc women from tho chains of fashion that led some other women to ta,ke to masculine dress. Their donning of trousers was a sensible gesture under certain circumstances in which they found themselves. The Maid of Orleans, certainly, cared nothing for fashion and not much more for women who bowed to it. Love of France, not of freedom in dress, led her to don armour such as men wore. Silken skirts and feminine trappings had no place in the magnificent programme of Joan of Arc. A much more obscure wearer of masculine dress took to it, like Joan, for practical purposes. Kady Browncll, one of the heroines of the civil 1 war ill America, followed her husband to battle as colour bearer of his company garbed in men's trousers and a loose, long skirted tunic tied with a wide sash. And, like the men, Kady carried a sword. Kady found as other women had learned before and have learned since, that the way of the fashion transgressor is hard. And that it is the members of her own sex who make it so.