I just returned from my trip back to Williamsburg for the
ALHFAM Conference at the William & Mary College, and I still can’t believe
it happened. Mostly I can’t believe that my co-presenter, Jody Luce and I got
to meet in person and hear each other’s voice after a few years of emailing
back and forth and sharing information about both our passions. We even celebrated the anniversary of first becoming friends on Facebook while we were there. She and Melanie
(one of her Bloomer Brigade in Peterboro, NY) drove 9 hours to attend the
conference just to do this one class with me. Jody portrays Elizabeth Smith
Miller (the original lady who wore the short dress with Turkish trousers) and
even lives in her historic home. Prior to my contacting the historical society there, knowledge
of these two dresses were unknown to each other.
Most exciting to both of us was the bringing together from
opposite coasts these two historic and unique garments related to an important
time in women’s history in the 1850s, the Women’s Rights Movement, and a
garment that would influence women’s dress in the decades to follow to this
day.
Neither Jody nor I knew each other’s style of presenting our
stories, so we both enjoyed seeing and watching each other tell them. I learned
a few new things from her on the bloomer dress: that it was mostly a very
stylish and fashionable dress, rather than a utilitarian one that I was leaning
towards. And later versions that I
*thought* were bloomers, were actually more of a coat with men’s style pants,
similar to those worn during the Civil War. But the idea of wearing pants
remained as the focus. The “bloomer-style” dresses were short-lived just barely
into the 1860s, with the advent of the crinoline hoopskirt, with possibly one “late bloomer” in the early 1880s by Marietta
Stow. The rest were mostly gymnastic costumes or bathing garments.
Our arrival for our presentation at the W&A was rather
confusing. I never met anyone on the day of registration. I found the college
information desk with two students, asked where I go to pick up my papers, and
was told they had it. So I got those, along with an ALHFAM-logo tote bag with a
metal water bottle. And I left. The conference and classrooms are scattered all
over the campus and I had a hard time finding anything even with a map since
the buildings mostly were not marked that we could tell. We had to scout out
the place the day before just so we could find out where we were going to be
at. I didn’t attend any classes or dinners because I was only in Williamsburg
for a few days and had friends I wanted to visit. So I may have been able
to talk to more people if I’d done that. But considering I didn’t know anyone
there I would have felt out of place. Also, I found out later the majority of
attendees are not students or costumers there to learn but managers and
directors of living history museums who share and learn how to run their locations. At
least that’s the impression and knowledge that I picked up. I did meet a couple
attendees who I would actually consider students but that was it. I was kind of
a fish in the wrong pond there. I did make it clear at the beginning of my
presentation that I was a costume interpreter, not a reenactor, nor an expert
in any field. I simply wanted to share these dresses and the wonderful bits of
history related to women.
We had a nice classroom, and it was comfortable, considering
it was horribly hot, almost 100d and a closely matched humidity outside, and being
in full costume made it harder on us. Both Jody and Melanie and I were dressed
in our favorite bloomer outfits. Right there I wanted to say our gowns, but I
was told by one of the attendees in class that I shouldn’t use that term and it
wasn’t used back then. I had been using it to clarify that this was a dress not
underwear whenever bloomers were brought up, but from now on, I’m to use dress
or costume. These were also known as the American Costume. The room was already set up with a computer, projector and screen so all we had to do was plug in my
thumb drive and we were off. I brought my green silk dress I recreated from the
one held in the
San Diego History Center's costume collection, using the Past
Patterns pattern I had, and displayed it on a dress form. Jody brought the
black wool one from the
Cortland County Historical Society in NY, and laid that out on
a table to show it to everyone. That one was definitely a show-stopper as it
was an original one, compared to my re-creation, and it was beautifully
embellished with velvet appliqued leaves and berries. The skirt has trimming all down the front and around the hem. The bloomers are gathered at
the ankles with a repeated trim. The jacket was the prettiest part. It has a
lapel collar, and closes at the waist and spreads open below. The trimming was
repeated on it too. Most likely a blouse or chemisette was worn under it. The
dress had been discovered stored inside a steamer trunk in the basement of a
bank which had closed, and only found when it was purchased by another bank
years later. But it still remained there for years until a historical society
took possession of it. It had the name of the owner and was dated. But nothing
else is known about it. I really enjoyed hearing that story.
The story behind our San Diego dress was that it had
originally been made as a full length dress when it came to CA, between
1848-50. About 1851, the owner, who was also known, after seeing the reports on
the bloomer dresses in NY, had it shortened and her bloomers were made using that
cut-off portion. In a diary her niece stated that she was never seen wearing it
on the streets.
Another surprise I had about the NY bloomer was that it also
was a split drawer design of pants, although it differed from the SD one in
that it buttoned at the waist on both sides where the back opened down, but was
split to the front like drawers. When this was shared with the class, it caused
a lot of excitement and questions about why this was so. We had one gentleman
in the class and he asked a lot of questions because in his own presentations,
he said he’s asked quite often about these things. I even “demonstrated” in a
lady-like way, how the split drawers are convenient. We told him since ladies
didn’t talk or write about their underpinnings, it’s mainly supposition why
these particular bloomers were made as split drawers but from a female point of
view, it made sense that since you’re already wearing split drawer underwear
you wouldn’t necessarily want to prevent their usage by wearing a closed pant
over them. Another supposition that Jody and I both have is there weren’t any
patterns immediately available for making bloomers so they used what was at
hand.
Our attendees to the class were very interested and asked a
lot of questions, so that was very satisfying. I had brought brochures from the
San Diego History Center that Gabe Selak had given me, along with postcards, and they
were picked up. Also some of my business cards and info on my blog were taken
too. Jody brought framed original bloomer artwork and music sheets. Jody and I
are both hoping that word gets out about these gowns and maybe others will come
to light. At least we hope these two will get some more attention and people
will contact their prospective museums.
My main disappointment with this conference, other than the
confusion, is that my former co-presenter, Pam Poulin, who had first pushed me
into doing this with her and then suddenly disappeared, still has her name with
mine on the ALHFAM website. I was promised that even if that wasn’t changed, it
wouldn’t be in the student handouts and Jody’s would be there. I
heard one lady said when she saw Pam’s name, she wasn’t going to attend. But
when she walked by the room and saw Jody’s instead, she came in. And she was
glad she did. Considering I was hearing Pam has quite a reputation for being
half-baked, I now wonder how many others didn’t attend either. I would have
preferred distancing myself from her, and getting Jody the recognition she so
deserves. I found out there is a program book produced later on from this
conference with information on each class and given to the students. They’re
going to get an earful, and I’m going to make damn sure they get THAT
right. *Rant over*
*Edited to add* I got my package in the mail today that I
had mailed to myself from Williamsburg with all my class papers, and found the
student handbook, and it DID have Jody’s name in it. All is well.*
And speaking of that program booklet, we heard we’re
supposed to write an essay to be included in it from our class, with
documentation. EEK! No one told me
anything about this but given how the rest of it went, I’m not surprised. I haven’t the vaguest idea of what they want
so I hope someone tells me, or gives me examples of what to do.
I want to send out big hugs to Jody and Melanie, for coming
to my rescue, and making this all possible. I love that I am now part of their Bloomer Brigade and hope we bring more ladies to it.
As an after-effect of doing this, I now want to make a new
bloomer dress (darn, still wanted to say gown) in a prettier fabric and have
straight sleeves because I’ve always hated those clumsy pagoda sleeves.
In case you wanted to see that beautiful bloomer dress from Peterboro,
here are some close-up photos I took of it. It was a three piece outfit right down to the matching tiny little shoes.
I came home to a very happy kitty, who has been letting us
know all day and ALL night just how happy she is. I can’t complain. I missed
her too.
~~Val~~
