How did women wearing hoop skirts during the 18th and 19th century go to the bathroom?

Answer 1

Until the 1880's, women wore crotchless pantaloons underwear (weird but true). This made it easier for them to use the restroom whenever necessary. In the days before indoor Plumbing, "chamber pots" were often used by ladies. Chamber pots are basically large containers with a wide opening which could be used instead of going to an outhouse or latrine. It would have been much easier for a hoop skirted woman to bend over a chamber pot than to try fitting into an outhouse, not to mention the chore of trying to sit down in an outhouse without getting dirty. Chamber pots were placed on the floor since it would have been difficult to lift the skirts high enough to keep them from getting soiled otherwise. Poor and working women who might have had cause to use outhouses (such as those living on homesteads) usually had to wear more practical working dresses without hoops anyway. Women wearing hoops rarely had the problem of trying to actually sit on a toilet since, by the time indoor plumbing became popular, styles had changed.