You Forgot Your Skirt Amelia Bloomer Author:Shana Corey, Chesley McLaren (Illustrator) Amelia Bloomer, a rebellious reformer and early women's rights activist, invented bloomers (baggy pantaloons worn with a short skirt over them), thus liberating women from the dangerous and oppressive clothing of the mid-nineteenth century. Here is her story, told in buoyant, witty text and beautiful, high styled-illustrations.