An Essay on Ladies Fashion and the development of the Toilet.

It is generally accepted that women wore long skirts for hundreds of years because they were repressed by society.

Possibly. It is nice that society has relaxed enough to allow both men and women to dress comfortably and casually. However! I think it has as much to do with plumbing.

(Boys who blush easily should stop reading now.)

I was surprised to read, in The Jane Austen Handbook, that Regency women like Jane Austen did not wear knickers. (I warned you!) Underneath those long dresses and long petticoats… nothing! Just some thin socks. I wondered, why? Weren't they cold? Didn't they feel naked? Why didn't they invent bloomers? And then I realised, they had no proper toilets. Women had to use potties. With a little imagination, the link is obvious.

Legged underpants (or trousers) would make it difficult to use a potty. The trouser is an awkward item of clothing to half-remove because it ties your legs together. I have no idea how exactly ladies used the potty, but I imagine having your legs in trousers would be tricky.

Big skirts are fine for potties, but very difficult for modern toilets, as shown in the movie 27 Dresses, where bridesmaid duties include holding up voluminous wedding dress while bride wee-wees. So bathroom development and fashion development is linked as follows:

Potty = long skirts,
Toilet = trousers or legged underpants.

Also, once you have legged underpants, like pantaloons or knickers, you no longer have to rely on long skirts for warmth and modesty; you can have any length skirt you like.

There you have it! Women's liberation from long skirts is linked to developments in home plumbing. The gradual shift from long skirts to short skirts/trousers could not have happened without a shift from petticoats to split-legged pantaloons to bloomers to knickers... which could not have happened without the modern toilet.