17 Weird Fashion Ideas From The Past That You’d Agree Are Totally Dumb (4 of 4)

Bloomer Suits

A leading temperance advocate and newspaper editor of the 1850s, Amelia Bloom started a trend that encouraged women to wear fewer constricting clothes and more practical ones. Her newspaper, The Lily, was the original place where she, along with activist and writer Elizabeth Smith Miller began promoting the “Bloomer suit”. The bloomer suit consisted of trousers that were worn underneath a knee-length skirt and a vest, and the suit gained immense popularity with other temperance activists and women.

However, the women who chose to wear this bloomer suit were harassed by people, as it was considered scandalous by the society’s standards at that time. In fact, many editorials were written about how the Bloomer suit actually exposed a woman’s mystery by revealing way too much! The Bloomer suit was ridiculed by the press and society until it was finally pushed out of trend, but not before it made a mark on fashion.

Muslin dresses

The muslin dress, which was considered quite risqué and sheer, was made popular by Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France. It was quite the dawn of a new era where women felt more comfortable in showing skin at the French court. However, the fabric wasn’t suitable for the winters, as it was extremely thin and offered almost zero insulation. Rumors also made rounds that some women would even wet themselves down with water or perfumes to show off their body, which exposed them to the climatic elements even more.

The muslin dress, according to numerous historians, actually led to more than eighteen hundred influenza outbreaks in the city of Paris, and it took the lives of many women because of the “muslin-disease”!