Amelia Bloomer, a mid 19th century women's suffrage activist and women's dress reform advocate, argued that women’s clothing should suit the wearer’s “health, comfort and usefulness.” For many women of the time, the prevailing fashion of tight corsets, trailing skirts, and layers of petticoats was both a symbol of women’s degradation and a health hazard. In today's world it is most accessible for folks who menstruate to use tampons, pads and more recently synthetic period underwear; all with traces of harmful chemicals that disrupt natural pH and bacterial levels. These products inevitably pile up in landfills taking hundreds of years to break down, if ever. Prolonged use could lead to ill effects for people's bodies and to our Earth. Inspired in part by Amelia Bloomer, we feel a need to support women's rights to reproductive health and waste reduction with useful, all-natural fashion.
In 1849, Amelia Bloomer began 'The Lily,' one of the first american newspapers for women by women. Including writings by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, this paper made way for feminist conversation. Wearing pantaloons as a symbol of her own emancipation, in 1851, Amelia Bloomer took to a more worldly fashion. She was was inspired by Turkish style and Libby Smith Miller (a cousin of Elizabeth Stanton) to write in 'The Lily' advocating a new type of women's wear featuring pantaloons under a short skirt. These pantaloons were quickly coined by the name 'Bloomers' and became an outlet for feminist expression.
The term 'Bloomers', as they were initially worn beneath an overskirt, has over time become a more general name for underwear. Nearly 170 years later, we have incorporated 'Bloomers' in our organization's name as a reminder of a group of courageous, free-thinking women associated with the early movement for women’s rights AND because we make ladies period panties for when we ‘bloom’ with the moon cycles! Through MoonBloomers, we hope to illustrate our mission in supporting women's accessibility to and freedom in healthy, handmade clothing while ‘blooming’--honoring and adding to what Amelia Bloomer and her fellow female cohorts did for us.
The original 'Bloomers' suffered worldwide ridicule of men and other women alike, and revealed many opinions on issues of women’s fashion. But, while society was quick to observe from outside, Elizabeth Stanton provided this poetic first hand experience in regards to her liberation wearing the new apparel:
"Like a captive set free from her ball and chain, I was always ready for a brisk walk through sleet and snow and rain, to climb a mountain, jump over a fence, work in the garden, and was fit for any necessary locomotion. What a sense of liberty I felt with no skirts to hold or brush. Ready at any moment to climb a hill-top, to see the sun go down or the moon rise, with no ruffles or trails imped by the dew or soiled by the grass."
We want to bring this kind of comfort and liberation to people whose wombs bloom in cycles with the moon. Moon Bloomers seeks to provide for those who would like to live in a healthy body and a healthy Earth environment.
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