Dictionary

reform dress en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (historical) Women's clothing that avoided corseting and other constraints in favour of a looser, more comfortable fit, especially as part of a movement to make women's clothing more healthy and rational; an individual dress made according to such principles.
   • We cannot see wherein the reform dress we recommend is unbecoming. 1871, The Health Reformer, volumes 6-7, page 156:
   • Many women had a horror of reform dress, regarding it as nothing more than a flabby, badly fitting bag made of cheap material and depriving the wearer of the very last vestige of gracefulness and elegance. 2003, Patricia Anne Cunningham, Reforming Women's Fashion, 1850-1920, page 100:

Forms

Relateds

rational dress