The Way It Was When Women Were Under Wraps

The inconveniences didn't stop them. Though tortured by whalebone stays in their corsets and collars, they displayed their bodies and ruined their reputations. When the craze for women's athletics began about a century ago, their sportswear was comical, painfully uncomfortable, even dangerous. But women were determined to participate in sports, from swimming to mountain climbing, from hunting to golf.

Social conventions made access to some sports particularly difficult. Queen Victoria, for instance, went to extremes to preserve her modesty when she took her first plunge into the ocean, in 1847. Her husband, Prince Albert, had designed a bathing machine—a curtained wagon with five steps leading down into the sea—for their holidays on the Isle of Wight, but Victoria agreed to try the contraption only after Albert guaranteed she could not be seen while in the water. Once inside, the Queen changed into her bathing gear, a full-length swimming costume that was complete with mitts, booties and cap. When Her Majesty signaled she was ready, the house and its occupant were trundled into the sea while a band played God Save the Queen. Victoria even went so far as to immerse her head in the water. She noted in her diary: "I thought it delightful till I put my head under water, when I thought I should be stifled."

Considering the incredible outfits that women had to wear to swim, it is no wonder that bathing machines were popular in the mid-19th century. "Bathing dresses" were long, loose flannel gowns that fastened around the neck with string and were about as practical for swimming as modern hospital gowns. At best, they wrapped around and entangled the bather's legs, clinging to her silhoutte like a wet T-shirt. At worst, they escaped from the wearer altogether and naughtily floated to the water's surface.

Some Victorian bathing machines were hauled to the water's edge by winches powered by donkeys. Ladders enabled the bathers to step into the sea. Other machines extended from the beach like piers and were equipped with "modesty hoods," large canopies that shielded bathers from curious eyes. Timid swimmers could hire "dippers," middle-aged women who soothingly coaxed their charges into the unfamiliar sea. Men and women were supposed to bathe in different areas; the dippers were also useful in shooing away the inevitable Peeping Toms.

While women hid in their bathing machines, men swam in the nude. The practice extended through the turn of the century at fashionable Newport, R.I., where, at exclusive Bailey's Beach, a $3,000 membership fee bought a cabana and the privilege of taking a plunge with the "swellest of the swells." At nearby Easton's Beach, which was a public beach, women were requested to leave by noon so that the men could swim in the buff. It is rumored that sales of binoculars and telescopes were brisk at seaside resorts. Women even had specially designed fans with hidden spyglasses attached.

In the latter part of the 19th century, women's bathing costumes were made of wool and had built-in corsets, sleeved tunics and full-length drawers covered by a short skirt. Swimmers also wore rubber-soled bathing boots that laced up the leg, similar in design to what professional wrestlers use today. Dips were carefully timed; in so much waterlogged gear, it was easier to sink than swim.

Women mountain climbers of the 1860s had to scale cliffs while wearing skirts measuring 15 feet or more in circumference, which were supported by petticoats made of steel hoops. Hidden tapes and secret buttons enabled the wearer to raise her skirts an inch or two, but if a man was seen in the distance, she instantly had to hide her sexy ankles and shoes. Women's feet were considered so alluring that photographers of the time often deleted them from prints.

Mountain climbing in voluminous skirts was not only demanding, it was also death defying. Strong gusts of wind could lift petticoats and bodies right off the mountainside. Wags suggested that with a bit of luck the hoops would act as parachutes and gently float their wearers to safety.

Equestriennes of the 1870s squeezed into bodices so tight that they appeared to have been poured into their riding habits, a look achieved by tightly laced corsets believed necessary for back support. It wasn't unusual for a woman to button the top portion of her garment after she got on the horse. The fit was so snug that seams occasionally burst as the rider dismounted.

No rider could rival the riding garb of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who was proud of her slender figure. The empress's waistline was only 16 inches, the size of a man's neck. To keep it, she followed a starvation diet of violet sherbet, oranges and meat juice, weighed herself obsessively and worked out in a gym with rings and dumbbells, and on a balance beam. When it was time to go riding, Her Imperial Highness showed off her figure by having her habit sewed onto her—that was after her servants had stretched a chamois undergarment over her body and stitched it on as well. The dressing process took three hours. Despite her tight clothing, the empress astonished onlookers with dangerous feats and circus stunts as she rode, sidesaddle.