Bloomerism

Then the series of hearty laughs that, in 1851, accompanied his handling of "Bloomerism" -- that parent of our modern dress reform and the divided skirt, and certainly the ancestor of the lady-bicyclist's costume ( "A skirt divided against itself cannot stand; it must sit upon a bicycle") -- served to kill the thing that the natural modesty of Leech put down as unwomanly and his æsthetic sense as hideous.

The History of "Punch" M. H. Spielmann

1 Mayfair had no appreciation of any of these aspects of millinery, and "Bloomerism" never caught on with the fashionable world.

Mr. Punch`s history of modern England, Volume I -- 1841-1857 Charles Larcom 1921

John Leech determined that there should be no Bloomerism in the land, and there was none -- only, by the charm of his drawings, he came very near making it popular, and converting British young womanhood to Turkish trousers.

The History of "Punch" M. H. Spielmann

Bloomerism, and Dollars epitomized his notion of American civilization; and he cheerfully echoed the sentiments

Prime Ministers and Some Others A Book of Reminiscences George William Erskine Russell 1886

Atlantic, where she-doctors, and she-lecturers, and she-clerks, and she-nondescripts receive more encouragement than they have yet met with amongst us, and where the independence of women has broken out in the form of Bloomerism and other extravagances.

Current Literature 1865

Two Bloomers in very poor green habiliments sat opposite to me, and did not appear to attract any attention, though Bloomerism is happily defunct in the States.

The Englishwoman in America 1867

– pooh, pooh; nonsense; Bloomerism; Americanism! we can't have that sort of thing in England.

A Letter to the Queen on Lord Chancellor Cransworth's Marriage and Divorce Bill 1855