Origin: 1851
Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, an early feminist, was delighted to be able to publish articles in her magazine The Lily about a new, liberating costume for women. Conventional fashion of the mid-nineteenth century was a long dress with skirts that scraped the ground, collecting mud and dust. The new costume raised the skirt to knee length, preserving modesty by encasing the lower limbs in a kind of loose pantaloons, snug around the ankles--not unlike the lower part of today's jogging suit. To complete the outfit, the modern woman wore a short jacket and a broad-brimmed hat.
Because it was associated with Mrs. Bloomer, the outfit with short skirt and pants became known as a Bloomer suit or Bloomer costume. The distinctive and shockingly visible pants themselves soon acquired the name bloomers, though Mrs. Bloomer protested that she wasn't the inventor. The Boston Transcript reported in May 1851, "The first 'Bloomer' made its appearance in our city yesterday." And Harper's magazine for September of that year communicated, "The ladies seem determined to reduce the volume of their dresses. This is manifested...at home by the general favor in which the 'bloomers' are held."
