The Rational Dress Movement was a late Victorian era proposal for reforming the dress standards for women. Numerous different reformers proposed changed, stressing the need for more practical and comfortable fashions than were available at the time. These reformers were typically middle-class women, involved in the first wave of feminism in the US and Britain. The movement emerged in the 1850’s along with calls for temperance, suffrage and women’s education. The dress reform requested liberation from the dictates of fashion. It was most successful in changing women’s undergarments but were also influential in simplified clothing for bicycling and swimming. While the moment was less concerned with men’s clothing, it did initiate a widespread adoption of knitted wool.
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