• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.56 no.5 s.104
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• pp.105-117
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• 2006

The purpose of this research was to understand the process of American women's adoption of knickerbockers from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Articles and advertisements related to women's knickerbockers found from The New York Times were used as primary sources. Before 1920, women wore knickerbockers when they participated in sports including gymnasium, bicycling, and swimming. Knickerbockers were mostly worn with overskirts when women appeared in the public. Therefore, knickerbockers were categorized as underwear in the advertisements until the late 1910s. However, knickerbockers were even worn on the streets and in offices after American women gained suffrage in 1920. As more women adopted knickerbockers during the 1920s, the public criticisms and regulations on women's knickerbockers intensified. However, the articles on women's knickerbockers gradually disappeared from The New York Times, as they went out of fashion by the end of the 1920s. Considering the social situation and the change in womanhood during the period, I concluded that American women's adoption process of knickerbockers reflected the increase in women's mobility, and the change in gender roles and the definition of femininity.