" If a human being was out doing something alive , a woman go through it and thought , ' Oh , I ’d care to do that , too . ' She enter out how to do it . "
If there’s one thing that’s true in history, it’s that we’re usually trying to pick up the pieces in women’s stories — whether it’s how women thought, or even how they dressed.
This is true for the curators ofSporting Fashion, an exhibition that aims to piece together, for the first time, the history of women’s sportswear (and, inadvertently, the history of women in sports). Where men’s sports exist cherished and cataloged in hall-of-fames, in typical fashion, women’s sports are less so. But women climbed mountains in skirts, made swimwear out of denim scraps, and consistently had to think about how to make sports work for them, even if they weren’t always included.
“One of the things is that time forgets what history does not record,” Kevin Jones, the curator for the exhibition and Senior Curator at the ASU FIDM Museum, told me. “We don’t know how many women were actually out having fun. But I guarantee you, with the research we did, if a man was out doing something active, a woman saw it and thought, ‘Oh, I’d like to do that, too.’ She figured out how to do it.”
I caught my first glimpse of theSporting Fashionexhibition in aviral videoby TikTok user@tomboykatie. Like many others, I became absolutely obsessed with how innovative women had to be before the days leggings ruled our daily workouts.
So, in an effort to bring back to life women’s stories (and showcase some absolutely killer outfits in history), I’m here today to show you some snippets of what women actually wore to play sports in history, ‘cause they’re all so incredible and deserve their flowers (even if it’s 60–200+ years too late):
1.✨Ice skating✨, 1810s:
2.✨Archery✨, 1820s:
3.✨Mountaineering✨, aka rock-climbing, circa 1890s:
Yes, these women were rock-climbing in FULL SKIRTS:
“And the thing that I love about that photo, also, is that if you notice the women, one of the women has the kind of safety rope tied around her waist. And you think, ‘Okay, then it’s like somebody up at the top of the cliff is holding on.’ No, it goes up and over and is tied to the waist of the other woman. So if one woman falls, they both fall. I mean, it’s just like, ‘Oh my God,'” Kevin continued. “And then, I’m sorry, there is no man in that day and age, even now, who would be mountaineering, climbing the side of a cliff in a skirt.”
4.Ok next up, ✨Inline Skating✨, circa 1890s:
5.✨Croquet✨ and ✨Cricket✨, circa 1890s:
6.✨Fencing✨, circa 1890s:
7.✨Cycling✨, also circa 1890s:
8.✨Bathing✨, circa 1900s:
I’m sure you have…questions. But no, it’s not to swim in! It was a French personal changing tent, called a cabine d’essayage. It’s extremely rare and almost didn’t make the collection.
9.✨Piloting✨, circa 1930s:
Kevin continued, “And we thought about Amelia Earhart for piloting, but everybody knows Amelia Earhart, so we really wanted to kind of bring some women into focus that maybe people had never heard of. So we found out about Hazel Ying Lee, a Chinese American woman who lived up in the northwest and wanted to be a pilot, and this is back in the 1930s.”
10.Next up: ✨Rodeoing and Ranching✨ (Rodeoing: circa 1940s, Ranching: circa 1930s):
11.✨Strolling✨, sandals circa 1930s:
12.✨Yachting✨ (left: circa 1880s, right: circa 1930s):
13.✨Skiing✨, circa 1930s:
14.✨Roller Derby✨, circa 1940s:
That rounds out all the little snippets I have! If you’re wondering, why haven’t I seen any of these before!?! Well, a few things:
As I mentioned before , this is thefirsttime this is ever getting cataloged . It took curator Kevin Jones12 yearsof source garments and puzzle - piecing snippets of surviving women ’s history to make this exhibition happen . secondly , as many years passed by , many items were lost or deteriorated over time . And third , since it was n’t considered very important ( like a marriage dress ) , it was n’t save .
I also wondered who was wearing these garments and if sports were reserved only for wealthy women, but Kevin said that women in all classes were enjoying sports — it’s just their garments may not have survived as easily because they were used up.
“It just happens to be extraordinarily rare because, you know, the [garments] haven’t survived, especially anything for the middle or lower classes, they will use it up,” Kevin said. “It’s not like they can just go and acquire then, oh, another writing habit or another, whatever, piloting ensemble or something. So, again, that’s why this stuff is so rare.”
And if you’re like — OMG, how did they wear these garments, though?! Kevin urged us not to compare, because the garments were often modern and innovative for the time, even though they might look funny or impractical today.
As for why the exhibition stops at 1960 — well, Kevin said by 1960, women kinda figured out all the proper silhouettes by then. “By the time you get to 1960, everything that a woman is wearing today for sport, either uniform or just sportswear, has been invented, had been designed. The difference is the textile technology,” he said.
TheSporting Fashionexhibition, whichjust wrapped up traveling across the US,will be back at theASU FIDM Museumin the future (date TBD). In the meantime, their next exhibition,Fashion Statements, will open on Sept. 5, 2024 in Los Angeles.
The next exhibition will feature more than 70 employment date from the eighteenth century to the present . " It ’s really the very better of way story , from major designer to the offbeat oddities of fashion history , " Kevin said .
Anyway, that’s a wrap for now! Would you wear any of these looks today? Let me know down below!
