“‘A Real New Woman’ blared the headline of a wire report across America. ‘Miss Dorothy Chestie, the English actress recently arrived in this country, has altogether discarded skirts for daily wear.’
“Discarded her skirt? Well, it wasn’t as if she walked around her West 22nd Street neighborhood with entirely bare lower body. Chestie simply preferred the physical freedom afforded by bloomers, which in the 1890s were loose trousers that came in at the knee typically worn under a skirt or dress.”
