Amelia Jenks Bloomer

Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818 – 1894)

Feminist fashion icon. Social reformer. Newspaper editor.

Ever wonder where the old-fashioned clothing term “bloomers” came from? Well, buckle up friends, because you’re about to find out.

It’s no secret that in 19th-century polite society, women were required to dress formally in long, cumbersome dresses and skirts. Let’s just say Homer, NY native Amelia Jenks Bloomer was not comfortable with that fashion convention. In fact, she not only liked to wear a baggy pants-and-tunic outfit, but she often wrote about it in a wide-reaching women’s rights publication she edited and published. 

Her articles in The Lily included illustrations, which resulted in letters flooding in from all over the country with inquiries about the “costume” and requesting patterns. Much to the dismay of conservative men and women alike, Amelia had popularized the wearing of these practical, yet revolutionary pantaloons so much so that they became forever known as ‘bloomers.’ 

Amelia’s activism extended well beyond dress reform. She was passionately involved in temperance issues and worked within the suffragist movement under the heavy influence of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who wrote articles for The Lily under the pseudonym “Sunflower.”

Any visit to Seneca Falls must include a stop at the iconic “When Anthony Met Stanton”, a life-sized bronze sculpture of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony being introduced by none other than Amelia Bloomer (wearing, of course, her signature ‘bloomers’).