Maureen Bond
Still hanging
What you see here is a triumph of women’s activism. In the middle of the 19th century American women of a certain class began to voice their opinions on social issues, such as the emancipation of slaves, temperance, pay equity, and the right of women to vote. At the same time, women began to reform the Victorian dress code – particularly in regard to undergarments. Women were beginning to ride bicycles and engage in sports, and the underwear of the age was much too constricting and binding for easy movement.
One of their first successful efforts at dress reform was the creation of the ‘union suit,’ so called because it united a top garment and a bottom garment into a single unit. It was both modest and, with the cleverly designed ‘drop bottom,’ eminently practical for active women. The union suit was one of the first mass-produced garments of the Industrial Revolution; the production process allowed it to be easily replicated in three colors – natural wool, grey, and the ever-popular red.
The union suit was so practical and so inexpensive (the Montgomery Ward catalog for 1895 priced them at ten cents) that men soon adopted them. This may not have been the first time men chose to wear women’s underwear, but it’s probably the first time an undergarment designed for women became standard clothing for men.
So this garment – shabby, worn and faded as it is, and despite the fact that it’s been claimed by men — should be seen as a testament to the power of strong-willed women to change the world.
Editorial note: And yet the issue of pay equity for women, like this undergarment, is still hanging.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
