ABSTRACT
Ski-ing is the one sport, except ping-pong, which women took up from its introduction instead of at first letting men have all the fun to themselves. In 1894 Punch had suggested that the type known as the New Woman, who was rebelling against the established patriarchy of Victorian England, should be known as the Revolting Woman. Revolting daughters were demanding to be educated, to play games, to smoke cigarettes, to vote, and to join women’s clubs. Lady Harberton, that tireless worker for dress reform whose particular pet project was the divided skirt, gave the knickerbocker suit her blessing. To those whom the comforts of middle-class Victorian life had endowed with a comfortable embonpoint it was particularly unbecoming. Lady ski-ers, forewarned by these forerunning bi-peds, settled for skirts. And gradually and circumspectly the more expert ski-ers took to wearing breeches under a wrap skirt, which they took off when they reached the higher slopes and carried in their rucksacs.
