The most intelligent suggestions for Dress Reform are those that are directed towards reducing the weight or displacing the heavy, stiff, and unwieldy skirts and clothing the extremities of the female in divided garments, so that they are no longer exposed to the dangers of cold and drafts. The divided skirt is in the direct line of a modest and desirable improvement of woman’s dress, and it is growing in popularity among the most intelligent of reading and thinking women. If the specialists of female diseases were to study the interests of their patients with the same ardor that they study the methods how best to fill their offices with patients, on whom they perform useless and dangerous operations, they would be of some actual benefit to our wives, mothers, and sisters, and our women could be dressed as gracefully as at present with less than half the underclothes to pack around with them. I am decidedly opposed to anything approaching in style or shape the bloomer costume; the present style of outside dress cannot possibly be improved for a comely garment, but it is underneath this that an entire change should be speedily effected. The divided skirt is cut like drawers that have a width of thirty to forty inches of goods in each leg. I believe that the width of each leg should not be more than twenty-five to thirty inches; this makes the skirt warmer and lighter. This is not attached to a band to fasten around the waist, but to a yoke, which should be buttoned to the bodice waist, suspending the skirt from the shoulders. The material will be a matter of individual taste; the two qualities that should be always looked for are softness and warmth, and for that reason Jersey flannel and ladies’ cloth are the most suitable material; in summer or warm climates, pongee or wash silks may be substituted. The skirt is cut on the bias to fit the hips, where it is fulled in and attached to a yoke instead of a band and in the back it laps about two or three inches. The advantage of the divided skirt is that it protects the limbs and body against drafts and cold emanations, and takes the place of _all underskirts and petticoats_. This skirt alone, however, would be insufficient to accomplish all that is desired by way of guarding against exposures; for this reason there is also a so-called _Union suit_ worn under the divided skirt to complete the covering of the limbs. Union suits, as the name implies, unite a pair of closely-fitting drawers with an undershirt. There is no particular advantage in uniting the underdrawers with the undershirt, but there is certainly no disadvantage. The principal object that is to be attained is not in unionizing drawers and shirts, but wearing such _closely fitting undergarments_ that the _extremities_ are permanently protected, and in having them so lapped or closed that the _abdomen and pelvic organs_ are securely protected against cold.