Fashion in the 1850s through the 1880s accented large crinolines, cumbersome bustles, and padded busts with tiny waists laced into 'steam-moulded corsetry'. 'Tight-lacing' became part of the corset controversy: … See more

Dress reformers promoted the emancipation waist, or liberty bodice, as a replacement for the corset. The emancipation bodice was a tight sleeveless vest, … See more

In the 1870s, a largely English movement led by Mary Eliza Haweis sought dress reform to enhance and celebrate the natural shape of … See more

Although the Victorian dress reform movement itself failed to enact widespread change in women's fashion, social, political, and cultural shifts into the 1920s brought forth an … See more

The most famous product of the dress reform era is the bloomer suit. In 1851, a New England temperance activist named Elizabeth Smith Miller (Libby … See more

The dress reform movement spread from the United States and Great Britain to the Nordic countries in the 1880s and from Germany to Austria … See more

• Approx. second half of 1880s poster showing Annie Oakley wearing short-skirted attire
• 1896 ad showing a modified girdle, allowing women … See more