Reasons for Reform

At that time there were three outstanding features of women’s dress that demanded the attention of those advocating a reform: (1) the decided unhealthfulness of the prevailing style; (2) the immodesty of the hoop skirt then being worn; and (3) the inconvenience to the wearers.BHP 255.5

A writer in the The Health Reformer, March, 1868, made the following statements regarding the first point:BHP 255.6

“When the Health Reform Institute was established, the physicians decided that a better style of dress for women than the long, dragging skirts, was desirable…. The physicians declared it was not only desirable, but necessary in the treatment of some cases; and that being so, it would be useless and wrong to receive such cases without adopting what they were assured was essential to effect cures. Again, it seemed to be understood and conceded by all health reformers who had investigated the subject, that a reform dress was necessary, and if it was not adopted at the Institute, a class of patients would surely be driven to other institutions, where something different from the cumbersome, prevailing fashion was adopted. Therefore, to neglect this reform would be to sacrifice the best interests of the Institute, and of a certain class who most needed its benefits.”BHP 256.1

It is difficult for us, perhaps, to realize the unhealthful aspect of the dress of that time. Not only were the skirts so long that they dragged on the ground in all kinds of weather and under varying conditions, but the weight of the twenty to thirty yards of material used to make one skirt rested entirely on the hips instead of being suspended from the shoulders; nor was there any freedom of movement.BHP 256.2

In a secular book of that time, Four Years in a Boys’ College, Mrs. S. L. Anderson gives these words to one of her characters:BHP 256.3

“Ninety-nine hundredths of all diseases on record belong to women, and they all arise from her mode of dress. What would you think of tying up a race horse that way and starting him on the course? It is just as absurd to expect a woman to run this race of life creditably in her present style of dress.”BHP 256.4

Concerning the point of immodesty, a writer made this observation in the The Review and Herald, June 18, 1867:BHP 257.1

“Anyone that has traveled as much as I have, can bear testimony with me to the immodesty of the hoop skirt. A lady with one on very seldom enters a carriage, omnibus, car, and such places without immodestly exposing herself.”BHP 257.2

Ellen G. White wrote earlier in the The Review and Herald, August 27, 1861, emphasizing the same point:BHP 257.3

“Hoops, I was shown, are an abomination, and every Sabbath-keeper’s influence should be a rebuke to this ridiculous fashion, which has been a screen to iniquity.”BHP 257.4

In 1868 Ellen G. White wrote a tract entitled, The Dress Reform. In it, speaking of the inconvenience of the dress of the times, she stated:BHP 257.5

“If she goes into her garden to walk or to work among her flowers, to share the early, refreshing morning air, unless she holds them up with both hands, her skirts are dragging and drabbling in dirt and dew, until they are wet and muddy. Fashion attaches to her, cloth that is, in this case, used as a sort of mop. This is exceedingly inconvenient. But for the sake of fashion it must be endured.” Page 4.BHP 257.6

Upon the first presentation of Handel’s Messiah, in Dublin, on April 13, 1742, it was announced publicly beforehand that “ladies should not wear hoopskirts nor men their swords,” so that the auditorium, which ordinarily accommodated six hundred persons, might have room for seven hundred at the performance.BHP 257.7

Thus we can see that the agitation on the entire dress question originated outside the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists, many years before the reform dress was adopted by them. It was a cry for freedom from a burden that Dame Fashion had imposed upon the women of that time.BHP 258.1

Now that we have seen the beginning of dress reform in the United States among those not of our faith, let us see how the early Adventists related themselves to it. Living at that time and under those conditions, they were bound to feel its influence, for they were verily a part of the time in which they lived, even as we are today.BHP 258.2