Rainy Day Club

Last updated
Bertha Welby Bertha Welby, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes MET DP830101.jpg
Bertha Welby
Emma Beckwith EMMA BECKWITH.jpg
Emma Beckwith
Mrs. A. M. Palmer Mrs. A. M. Palmer (The History of the Woman's Club Movement, 1898).png
Mrs. A. M. Palmer

Rainy Day Club was an American woman's organization founded by Bertha Welby in New York City, on November 5, 1896. [1] The club's first president was Emma Beckwith. [2] Subsequently, for 25 years, Mrs. A. M. Palmer served in that role. [3]

All members of the Rainy Day Club had to pledge themselves to wear rainy-day dress in inclement weather, the object of the organization being to introduce sanitary methods in dress, as well as to promote sanitary reforms in homes. [1] It was the revolutionary effect of the bicycle that made this fashion movement possible. [4] Club members denied that there would be a sacrifice of "prettiness" in the new costume. Some women seemed to think that the advantages in convenience and comfort of the costumes the club was favoring would be counterbalanced by the loss in attractiveness. However, the new dress would not be ugly. It would be a dainty, light-weight skirt reaching to the shoe-tops,perfectly fitting boots with tops two inches higher than usual. Each woman could decide for herself as to the waist, and could make her costume as attractive as any she wears. [1]

History

The Rainy Day Club was founded in 1896 by the actress, Bertha Welby. [5]

It was composed largely of intelligent and well-known women who were not strong-minded, but who had at heart the best interests of women. It was at the time when women were becoming more and more involved in the business world. Before this, when comparatively few women had to venture out regardless of the weather, the prevalent styles didn't make much difference to women. [6]

A rainy-day costume (The Illustrated American, 1897) A rainy-day costume (The Illustrated American, 1897).png
A rainy-day costume (The Illustrated American, 1897)

The object was to make fashionable, if possible, a sensible short-skirted costume for inclement weather. The members were impelled to this effort by the knowledge that the prevailing long trailing dresses carried into homes bacteria from dirty sidewalks. This was particularly true of the homes of poorer women, where often to dry their skirts, the wearers hung them up in the bedrooms. Experience taught them that the long skirt in rainy weather was a menace to health and that the dampness oftentimes became the generator of colds and, in many cases, of more serious complications. It was their aim to establish the rainy-day dress among women of all classes. [3]

The movement was not a fad. It was not the club's intention to encourage women to dress inappropriately when outside. In fact, no unnecessarily conspicuous costume would be endorsed by the club. The members of the Rainy Day Club tried to make their stormy-day dresses as practical and at the same time as graceful as possible, but pledged themselves always to wear skirts that would not be more than 8 inches (200 mm) or less than 4 inches (100 mm) from the ground, and that their feet and ankles would be adequately protected against the damp and wet. [3]

Besides the Committee on Hygiene, there were also committees on literature, music, and art. The annual meeting for the election of officers took place on the third Wednesday in December, while other business meetings of the club were held on the third Wednesday of all but the summer months. The social meetings occurred on the first Wednesdays, excepting also June, July, August, and September. [1]

Newspapermen found the club women a laughable subject of the newspaper wit in vogue at the time. They dubbed them the Rainy Daisies, and the topical songsters of the stage made fun of them under that title. At times, they were ridiculed by other women. In the end, other women simply declined to back them up by following their excellent example. As a result, the Rainy Day Club quickly faded away and women went on dragging their skirts in the dirt and wet. [6]

Twenty years later, the rainy daisy skirt came into fashion at the behest of the Parisian and U.S. fashion Markets. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corset</span> Garment, reinforced with stays, that supports the waistline, hips and bust.

A corset is a support garment commonly worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape, traditionally a smaller waist or larger bottom, for aesthetic or medical purposes, or support the breasts. Both men and women are known to wear corsets, though this item was for many years an integral part of women's wardrobes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese clothing</span> Japanese clothing, traditional and modern

There are typically two types of clothing worn in Japan: traditional clothing known as Japanese clothing, including the national dress of Japan, the kimono, and Western clothing, which encompasses all else not recognised as either national dress or the dress of another country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skirt</span> Clothing worn from the waist or hips

A skirt is the lower part of a dress or a separate outer garment that covers a person from the waist downwards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tightlacing</span> Practice of wearing a tightly laced corset

Tightlacing is the practice of wearing a tightly laced corset. It is done to achieve cosmetic modifications to the figure and posture or to experience the sensation of bodily restriction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1890s in Western fashion</span> Costume and fashion of the 1890s

Fashion in the 1890s in European and European-influenced countries is characterized by long elegant lines, tall collars, and the rise of sportswear. It was an era of great dress reforms led by the invention of the drop-frame safety bicycle, which allowed women the opportunity to ride bicycles more comfortably, and therefore, created the need for appropriate clothing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1870s in Western fashion</span> Costume and fashion of the 1870s

1870s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a gradual return to a narrow silhouette after the full-skirted fashions of the 1850s and 1860s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victorian dress reform</span> Victorian era design movement favouring practical womens clothing

Victorian dress reform was an objective of the Victorian dress reform movement of the middle and late Victorian era, led by various reformers who proposed, designed, and wore clothing considered more practical and comfortable than the fashions of the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casual wear</span> Western dress code suited for everyday use

Casual wear is a Western dress code that is relaxed, occasional, spontaneous and suited for everyday use. Casual wear became popular in the Western world following the counterculture of the 1960s. When emphasising casual wear's comfort, it may be referred to as leisurewear or loungewear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riding habit</span> Womens clothing for horseback riding

A riding habit is women's clothing for horseback riding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claire McCardell</span> American fashion designer (1905-1958)

Claire McCardell was an American fashion designer of ready-to-wear clothing in the twentieth century. She is credited with the creation of American sportswear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1930–1945 in Western fashion</span> Costume and fashion from the 1930s to the end of World War II

The most characteristic North American fashion trend from the 1930s to 1945 was attention at the shoulder, with butterfly sleeves and banjo sleeves, and exaggerated shoulder pads for both men and women by the 1940s. The period also saw the first widespread use of man-made fibers, especially rayon for dresses and viscose for linings and lingerie, and synthetic nylon stockings. The zipper became widely used. These essentially U.S. developments were echoed, in varying degrees, in Britain and Europe. Suntans became fashionable in the early 1930s, along with travel to the resorts along the Mediterranean, in the Bahamas, and on the east coast of Florida where one can acquire a tan, leading to new categories of clothes: white dinner jackets for men and beach pajamas, halter tops, and bare midriffs for women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1920s in Western fashion</span> Clothing in the 1920s

Western fashion in the 1920s underwent a modernization. For women, fashion had continued to change away from the extravagant and restrictive styles of the Victorian and Edwardian periods, and towards looser clothing which revealed more of the arms and legs, that had begun at least a decade prior with the rising of hemlines to the ankle and the movement from the S-bend corset to the columnar silhouette of the 1910s. Men also began to wear less formal daily attire and athletic clothing or 'Sportswear' became a part of mainstream fashion for the first time. The 1920s are characterized by two distinct periods of fashion: in the early part of the decade, change was slower, and there was more reluctance to wear the new, revealing popular styles. From 1925, the public more passionately embraced the styles now typically associated with the Roaring Twenties. These styles continued to characterize fashion until the worldwide depression worsened in 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1900s in Western fashion</span> Costume and fashion in the decade 1900–1909

Fashion in the period 1900–1909 in the Western world continued the severe, long and elegant lines of the late 1890s. Tall, stiff collars characterize the period, as do women's broad hats and full "Gibson Girl" hairstyles. A new, columnar silhouette introduced by the couturiers of Paris late in the decade signaled the approaching abandonment of the corset as an indispensable garment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Men's skirts</span> Skirt-like garments worn by men and boys

Outside Western cultures, men's clothing commonly includes skirts and skirt-like garments; however, in the Americas and much of Europe, skirts are usually seen as feminine clothing and socially stigmatized for men and boys to wear, despite having done so for centuries. While there are exceptions, most notably the cassock and the kilt, these are not really considered 'skirts' in the typical sense of fashion wear; rather they are worn as cultural and vocational garments. People have variously attempted to promote the fashionable wearing of skirts by men in Western culture and to do away with this gender distinction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dress</span> Garment consisting of a bodice and skirt made in one or more pieces

A dress is a garment traditionally worn by women or girls consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice. It consists of a top piece that covers the torso and hangs down over the legs. A dress can be any one-piece garment containing a skirt of any length, and can be formal or casual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheath dress</span> Type of dress designed to fit close to the body, relatively unadorned

In fashion, a sheath dress is a fitted, straight cut dress, often nipped at the waistline with no waist seam. When constructing the dress, the bodice and skirt are joined together by combining the skirt darts into one dart: this aligns the skirt darts with the bodice waist dart. The dress emphasizes the waist as its skirt portion is fitted. While the sheath dress can come in many patterns and lengths, it often is worn with short sleeves and reaches knee length.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trousers</span> Clothing for the legs and lower body

Trousers, slacks, or pants are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separately. In the United Kingdom, the word pants generally means underwear and not trousers. Shorts are similar to trousers, but with legs that come down only to around the area of the knee, higher or lower depending on the style of the garment. To distinguish them from shorts, trousers may be called "long trousers" in certain contexts such as school uniform, where tailored shorts may be called "short trousers" in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rainy daisy</span>

A rainy daisy is a style of walking skirt worn during the "Gay Nineties" (1890–1900). The skirts were trimmed to be 2–3 inches off the ground and were worn by members of the Rainy Day Club. They were so-called because their shorter length meant that, by not trailing and soaking up water, they were easier to keep dry in wet weather. An alternative source for the name suggests that they were called after Daisy Miller, the eponymous heroine of the 1878 novella by Henry James.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mrs. A. M. Palmer</span>

Mrs. A. M. Palmer was an American clubwoman and civic leader. She was the founder and first president of the Professional Woman's League of New York City. For 25 years, she served as president of the Rainy Day Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bertha Welby</span>

Marcia Brooks O'Rielly was an American actress. She was also the founder of the Rainy Day Club in New York City, which led to shortened women's skirts, the rainy daisy, at the turn of the 20th century.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Club Women of New York. Mail and Express Company. 1904. pp. 63, 642. Retrieved 7 September 2023.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  2. American Commonwealth Company (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada. American Commonwealth Company. p. 89. ISBN   978-0-8103-4018-3.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  3. 1 2 3 O'Loughlin, R. S.; Montgomery, H. F.; Dwyer, Charles (May 1899). "Club Women and Club Life". The Delineator. Vol. LIII, no. 5. Butterick Publishing Company. p. 635. Retrieved 7 September 2023.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  4. Hoffmann, Hester (9 January 1897). "As seen through woman's eyes". The Illustrated American. Vol. XXI, no. 3. New York: Illustrated American Publishing Company. p. 92. Retrieved 7 September 2023.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  5. Krishna, Vidya (29 April 2022). Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History. Penguin Random House India Private Limited. p. 57. ISBN   978-93-5492-575-7 . Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 "Isn't human nature wonderful?". The Judge. Vol. 80, no. 2049. Judge Publishing Company. 5 February 1921. p. 14. Retrieved 7 September 2023.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .