Bloomer Parade

Parade route begins in the Downtown Historic District at the corner of 5th and Main and proceeds east on Main Street and ends at the entrance to Bohemia City at Coiner Park.

Imagine how uncomfortable and awkward it was wearing hoop skirts and yards of fabric to go motoring or cycling, play sports, or do gardening and other daily chores. Add to that misery, a federal law which prohibited women from fully engaging in the country’s public policy making process by denying them the right to vote.It’s hard to imagine in this modern era, where individuals’ creative expression rules current fashion, that just over a century ago it was socially taboo for Victorian era women to wear pants.

No wonder women formed the Rational Dress Society in 1881 and championed the need for practical fashions. Then in 1920, after years of public protests from coast to coast, American women were finally given the right to vote.

According to Bloomer Parade Coordinator Marie Longfellow the event provides an opportunity to recreate a women’s suffrage parade of bloomer-clad females carrying hand-lettered signs demanding the right to vote and calling for greater equality between men and women in all areas of society.

Females of all ages are invited to dress up in Victorian-era costumes and bloomers create protest signs and participate in this year’s parade.

Staging begins at 6 p.m. near 5th & Main in park behind City Hall and steps off at  6:30 p.m.

Locally, bloomers are available for purchase at Victoriana on the corner of 6th and Main in the Historic Downtown District.

Video Invitation (Courtesy of Faith Wellman and the LCC-CG 2009 Video Production Class)

Photo courtesy of Julie & Brinsley Photography