Fashion in the 1890's finally got rid of the bustle which had haunted women's fashion for 25 years. Early 1890's dresses consisted of a tight bodice with the skirt gathered at the waist and falling more naturally over the hips and undergarments than in previous years. 1890's Dress (http://www.marquise.de/database/dbout.php?name=1890_3&pfad=1800) The mid 90's introduced leg o' mutton sleeves, which grew in size each year until they disappeared in about 1896. Dress with Leg o' Mutton sleeves (http://www.marquise.de/database/dbout.php?name=1894_16&pfad=1800) During the same period of the mid 90's, skirts took on an A-line sillouette that was almost bell-like. Bell-shaped skirt (http://www.marquise.de/database/dbout.php?name=1895_11&pfad=1800) Changing attitudes about acceptable activities for women also made sportswear popular for women, with such notable examples as the bicycling dress and the tennis dress. Tennis Dress (http://www.marquise.de/database/dbout.php?name=1895_21&pfad=1800) The late 1890's returned to the tighter sleeves often with small puffs or ruffles capping the shoulder but fitted to the wrist. Fitted Sleeves (http://www.marquise.de/database/dbout.php?name=1898_3&pfad=1800) Skirts took on a trumpet shape, fitting more closely over the hip and flaring just above the knee. Trumpet-shaped skirts (http://www.marquise.de/database/dbout.php?name=1899_1&pfad=1800) Corsets in the 1890's helped define the hourglass figure as immortalized by the Artist Charles Dana Gibson. Hourglass Corset (http://www.marquise.de/database/dbout.php?name=1894_9&pfad=1800) In the very late 1890's the corset elongated, giving the women a slight S-curve sillouette that would be popular well into the Edwardian era. S Bend Corset (http://www.corsetsandcrinolines.com/timelinepix/1900/warn4.jpg)
If we carefully restrict our language, however, and take Victorian fashion to refer to the dress, or in a wider sense, the culture of an upper-middle-class London family of fashion and conventional attitudes, and describe it as it varied from decade to decade, we may be able to usefully describe these phenomena.
Women's fashionable clothing started with a straight, Regency silhouette, bloomed into exaggerated skirts and sleeves, moved to small shoulders and even wider skirts supported by crinolines or hoops, and narrowed by way of the bustle to hobble skirts.
Men's fashionable clothing was perhaps the least volatile, but there was still an enormous difference between the wasp waist and frock coats of the 1830s dandy and the sober sack suits and Norfolk jackets of 1901.
They were worn by a few women in the 1850s, but were widely ridiculed in the press, and failed to become commonly accepted (see 1850s in fashion).
These early bloomers were partly an attempt to adapt young girls' short skirts and pantalettes to adult women's attire, and were partly influenced by middle-eastern clothing styles (or what was thought to be middle-eastern styles) — hence the name "Syrian costume".
In 1909, fashion designer Paul Poiret attempted to popularize harem pants worn below a long flaring tunic, but this attempted revival of fashion bloomers (under another name) did not catch on.
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