Sir – May I be allowed in your columns to ask why the
British public is so horrified at the idea of women dressing in trousers,
seeing that they have for many years tolerated a number of men from the North
of the Tweed in wearing petticoats, and shockingly short petticoats too? ~
Amelia Jenks Bloomer
Those boys are so young, they look like they're growing out of their uniforms. WWI and Boer War pics always make me sad wondering how many of them made it back and in what condition, says the one whose grandfather spent the rest of his life coughing up crud after having caught a whiff of gas.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Wonder if Mrs. Bloomer knew what the Scots used to fight in before an Englishman designed the kilt and how the term 'hairy arsed Scot' came into being?
ReplyDeleteI think her comment is as far as a respectable Victorian woman could venture.
ReplyDeleteMy super-proper sister always wore skirts, quoting some obscure Bible verse that it was an abomination for a woman to wear men's clothes. She said it once when I was wearing slacks and The Squire had on a kilt, and he wanted to know if we should change clothes. She sputtered and fumed for a while - and then changed the subject.
ReplyDeleteIt's that cocky hat over one ear pose that makes my heart clutch every time I see it in old military photographs.
ReplyDeleteMy older sister has a photograph of my father, circa 1943, with his overseas cap slanted at that angle. I suppose they thought it made them look dashing? Instead they just look so young.
That dashing angle can only come from years of wearing hats with confidence.
ReplyDeleteWhen one knows how to wear a hat properly then one can find your dashing style.
And yes, they look so young!