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"PANTALETS" AND "TURKISH TROUSERS": DESIGNING FREEDOM IN THE MID-NINETEENTH-CENTURY UNITED STATES
And now I'm dressed like a little girl,
In a dress both loose and short,
Oh with what freedom I can sing,
And walk all `round about!
And when I get a little strength,
Some work I think I can do,
`Twill give me health and comfort,
And make me useful too.
-The Sibyl, April 15, 1859
During the middle of the nineteenth century in the United States, groups of women and individual women who seemed to have little, if anything, in common cast aside their long fashionable gowns and donned trousers worn beneath shortened dresses. 1 No single political ideology, religious theology, or social reform united these women: women's rights activists, Seventh-Day Adventists, hydropathists or water-cure doctors, health reformers, members of the National Dress Reform Association (NDRA), Strangite Mormons, and utopian communities, including Oneida, reflect the diversity of groups that joined the ranks of the dress reform movement. 2 For most members, dress reform was one issue among many and its importance varied. All these dress reformers, however, were linked by their belief in the superiority of reform dress over contemporary fashionable styles. They also shared another connection, one they seldom acknowledged-similar reform costume designs.
An understanding of the design origins and the construction techniques of various reform costumes offers clues to how the female reformers may have seen themselves-and how the American public may have interpreted their actions. Although dress reformers meant to send a particular message, observers quite often saw something different from what reformers had intended. Outraged commentators clearly perceived what dress reformers tried to downplay: by wearing pants-of any kind-women appropriated male dress, and, by association, male privilege and power. Understanding that pants had long been considered a male garment and that this association would be difficult to break, most dress reformers sought a version of bifurcated clothing with no masculine associations. Dress reformers faced the challenge of reinterpreting female garments from outside contexts-"Oriental" costume 3 and children's wear-into acceptable female apparel for middle-class American women. The evidence also indicates that some dress reformers designed their reform garments based on men's clothing and exercise outfits. 4 Borrowing pieces of male or sport apparel immediately implied masculinization and a threat...