Bloomers were a resurrection of an earlier attempt at dress reform. With the advent of the bicycle, if women were to ride safely and in relative comfort, the bottoms needed to divide; for the sake of convention, the garment looked more like a skirt. This ingenious combination was the best of both words, at least in theory.
These two illustrations from about 1894 show a women's bicycle costume - adaptable to buckle the skirt around the ankles (see detail at the bottom of the image) or wear it as a skirt.
A depiction of women on bicycles, 1894.
Adapted by Jone Lewis from a public domain illustration.
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