We don't think a man could identify his own wife when she comes out of the bathing-house. A plump figure enters, surrounded with a multitude of rustly flounces and scarcely able to squeeze an enormous hoop through the door. She is absent a few minutes, and presto change! out comes a tall lank apparition, wrapped in the scanty folds of something that looks more like a superannuated night-gown than anything else, and a battered straw-chapeau knocked down over the eyes, and stalks down towards the beach with the air and gait of a Tartar chieftain![40] [fig. 10.] [40] "An Excursion to Long Branch," _Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper_ (August 22, 1857), vol. 4, no. 90, p. 182. Another writer felt that he ... must say--even in the columns of _Frank Leslie's Illustrated_--that they don't look very picturesque or pretty when _a la Naiade_.... Rather limp, sacks tied in the middle, eel-bottles, hydropathic coalheavers and "longshoremen," and preternaturally dilapidated Bloomers, would appear to be the ideals aimed at.[41] [fig. 11.] [41] Loc. cit. (footnote 18). This use of the term "Bloomers," referring to long full drawers or trousers, is a reminder of how similar the 1855 bathing gown with drawers (see fig. 8) was to the reform dress introduced in 1848 and worn by Amelia Bloomer, the feminist, in 1852. Despite the evident use of a new waistline treatment, the most popular bathing costume of the 1870s, according to _Harper's Bazar_, continued to feature the yoke blouse that reached at least to the knee. This combination of blouse and skirt was held in position at the waist by a belt. The high neck was finished with a sailor collar or a standing pleated frill, while the long sleeves and full Turkish trousers, buttoned on the side of the ankle, concealed the limbs. In 1873 a column on New York fashions reported an effort to popularize short-sleeved, low-throated suits then in favor at European bathing places and which had been illustrated in the _Bazar_. Nevertheless, the writer hedged this report by adding that It is thought best, however, to provide an extra pair of long sleeves that may be buttoned on or basted in the short puffs that are sewn in the arm holes. Sometimes a small cape fastening closely about the throat is also added.[42] [42] "New York Fashions," _Harper's Bazar_ (July 19, 1873), vol. 6, no. 29, p. 451. Nevertheless, sketches of bathing scenes from the seventies indicate that some American women wore even shorter sleeves and trousers than those prescribed by the fashion magazines. Linen and wool fabrics were both suggested in the 1840s, but by the 1870s flannel was most frequently used for bathing dresses, with serge also being recommended. Navy blue, and to a lesser extent, white, gray, scarlet, and brown were popular colors in checks as well as solid colors trimmed with white, red, gray, or blue worsted braid.