Sports Clothing

During the 19th century living standards were improved and people actually had time to do things like leisurely activities, such as sports. Standard pieces of men’s clothing items were still used, but informally during sports and traveling. Clothing that women wore regularly was somewhat appropriate for their sports including, hunting, tennis and horseback riding. They did have different clothing items, it just wasn’t drastically different from everyday wear. They had bathing dresses that they used for swimming and some other sports but primarily swimming. For sports like golf and skiing new clothing items came into play. Things like knitted sweaters and there was a men’s jacket, the Norfolk jacket that was changed slightly to be wearable as women’s hunting wear. This is also where bloomers played a large part because for things like biking women needed to cover themselves. Bloomers were thought of by Amelia Jenks Bloomer who was a feminist during the mid-19th century. These bloomers, that were named after her, arrived during the same time as the women’s rights campaigns began.