For most of pre-20th century fashion history, women’s hemlines did not rise above ground level. What a nightmare it must have been to clean the hems after a sojourn outdoors.
Here’s a fashion accessory you don’t come across much any more: the skirt-lifter (otherwise known as the dress-holder).
They were used by promenaders, croquet players, and, I have to think, anyone who wanted to keep her hemline in reasonable condition. They seem to have hit their peak when women took to bicycle riding in the 1890s. They were attached by a long chain to a woman’s belt, and shaped like tongs or pincers, and could catch and lock the hem of a woman’s skirt. The wearer would pull up on the chain and lift her skirt so that she could cross a dirty street, or climb stairs or trolley steps, or ride a bicycle.
Peterson’s Magazine, June 1879
Images: Top paintings all from wikimedia. Skirt lifter images come from Etsy or Sotheby’s or this French for-sale site, and are offered for sale (and are therefore, I hope, permissible to post).