Ellen G. White: The Progressive Years: 1862-1876 (vol. 2)

The Reform Dress

As to the reasons for a need of reform in women's dress at that time, the New York Independent in 1913 painted a vivid picture: 2BIO 177.4

The chief points in the indictment of woman's dress of former times were that the figure was dissected like a wasp's, that the hips were overloaded with heavy skirts, and that the skirts dragged upon the ground and swept up the dirt. 2BIO 177.5

Nowadays the weight of a woman's clothing as a whole is only half or a third of what it used to be. Four dresses can be packed in the space formerly filled by one. In the one-piece dresses now in vogue the weight is borne from the shoulders, and the hips are relieved by reducing the skirts in weight, length, and number. The skirt no longer trails upon the street.... 2BIO 178.1

The women who, for conscientious reasons, refused to squeeze their waists, and in consequence suffered the scorn of their sex, now find themselves on the fashionable side. A thirty-two-inch waist is regarded as permissible, where formerly a twenty-inch waist was thought proper. A fashionably gowned woman of the present day can stoop to pick up a pin at her feet.—New York Independent, October 23, 1913 (see also The Story of Our Health Message, 118, 119). 2BIO 178.2

When in the late summer of 1864 James and Ellen White first visited Dr. Jackson's “Home on the Hillside” at Dansville, New York, they found what was called the “American costume,” worn by the lady physicians and many of the women patients. While it had many features that made it more acceptable than the prevailing styles, the Whites considered certain features objectionable. Writing to friends at Battle Creek, Ellen explained: 2BIO 178.3

They have all styles of dress here. Some are very becoming, if not so short. We shall get patterns from this place, and I think we can get out a style of dress more healthful than we now wear, and yet not be bloomer or the “American costume.” ...I am going to get up a style of dress on my own hook which will accord perfectly with that which has been shown me. Health demands it. Our feeble women must dispense with heavy skirts and tight waists if they value health.... 2BIO 178.4

We shall never imitate Miss Dr. Austin or Mrs. Dr. York. They dress very much like men. We shall imitate or follow no fashion we have ever yet seen. We shall institute a fashion which will be both economical and healthful.—Letter 1a, 1864 (see also The Story of Our Health Message, 128). (Italics supplied.) 2BIO 178.5

Whether it was on June 6, 1863, or in a vision soon thereafter that is referred to here is not clear. Her counsel in How to Live, No. 6, published in June, 1865, deals with principles: 2BIO 178.6

The female form should not be compressed in the least with corsets and whale bones. The dress should be perfectly easy that the lungs and heart may have healthy action. The dress should reach somewhat below the top of the boot; but should be short enough to clear the filth of the sidewalk and street, without being raised by the hand. A still shorter dress than this would be proper, convenient, and healthful for females, when doing their housework, and especially, for those women who are obliged to perform more or less out-of-door labor. 2BIO 179.1

With this style of dress, one light skirt, or, at most two, are all that is necessary, and these should be buttoned on to a waist, or suspended with straps. The hips were not formed to bear heavy weights.... 2BIO 179.2

Whatever may be the length of the dress, females should clothe their limbs as thoroughly as the males. This may be done by wearing lined pants gathered into a band and fastened about the ankle, or made full and tapering at the bottom; and these should come down long enough to meet the shoe. 2BIO 179.3

The limbs and ankles thus clothed are protected against a current of air. If the limbs and feet are kept comfortable with warm clothing, the circulation will be equalized, and the blood will remain healthy and pure, because it is not chilled or hindered in its natural passage through the system.—How to Live, No. 6, pp. 63, 64 (see also Selected Messages 2:478, 479). 2BIO 179.4