Object: Ensemble
Date: c. 1888
Medium: Wool
Country: USA
Credit Line: Museum purchase
Object number: P88.63.1
Descriptionbicycle riding jacket: black wool; notched collar; fitted, princess back with tail vent; 2 piece long sleeve with 2 button vent cuff; 7 button center front closing. Matching chest warmer; band collar with 2 hook closing; 3 button center front closing. Matching pants: wide flared legs; button fly closing.
Label Text:During the late nineteenth century, women bicyclists wore bloomers or divided skirts, which many found shocking. They were not accepted outside of the sportswear context, and The New York Times warned that divided skirts were “merely a resting-place on the road to trousers.” In Paris, bicycling costumes were a fashionable fad, but women risked arrest if caught wearing them while not in the presence of a bicycle.
Exhibitions:
- Fashion & Politics
- Fashion and Technology
- Sporting Life