Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Styles of Reform Dress

Different reformers had different viewpoints on how to correct the styles of the day. Some were more extreme than others. Because of the very newness of the reform dress idea, there were at first no sharply defined names for the different styles of such dress. Dr. James C. Jackson and Miss Dr. Austin at “Our Home” at Dansville, New York, brought out one of the reform dress styles. This was described as the American costume. Wrote Dr. Jackson: EGWC 141.2

“It was with reference to a better method of treating diseases peculiar to women, that Miss Austin and myself were led to invent the American costume.”—JAMES C. JACKSON, M.D., How to Treat the Sick Without Medicine, p. 66. EGWC 141.3

We have not found in the writings of Dr. Jackson any exact description of the American costume. We do know, however, from other sources that this costume was distinguished by the extreme shortness of the dress. Some described the dress as coming to the knees, and some as coming to a point half way between the hips and the knees, with mannish trousers to cover the legs. Obviously such a costume went further than was necessary to remedy the grave defects of the current fashions, and gave to women an extremely mannish look. ^* EGWC 141.4

So well defined was the dress reformers’ opposition to the current fashions that it took on, for a time, the quality of a crusade. There were women’s associations that had as their main object dress reform. They held lecture courses at which patterns of reform dress styles were exhibited to all who came. ^* EGWC 142.1