"Four dresses of fine blue wool, plain but well cut, were hanging in the dressing room, two of them with skirts divided for riding, and she changed into one with a full skirt and left the banded Accepted's dress folded in the wicker laundry basket."
- New Spring, Chapter 12
I have heard at a number of WoT events that we can assume the technology level of the Westlands to be somewhere on the order of that available in the real world in the late 17th or early 18th Century, with the exception of gunpowder. However, we need not take that to mean that the fashions of Randland are based squarely in that historical period. While that's a good place to start in your costuming explorations, some nations' dress doesn't reflect that, and a few pieces common across cultures are also out of place in that time. For example, take skirts divided for riding. Divided skirts are very full skirts that have been slit up the center line in the front and the back, with the halves sewn together to form something like a very wide trouser leg. Skirts divided for riding, or female characters bemoaning the lack of such skirts, have been with us from the beginning of the series. The quote above tells us of the "starter" clothes provided by the Blue Ajah for new sisters, which reflect the need to ride out and get involved with things, as Blues tend to like to do.
In our world, however, these garments did not come along until the 19th century. The first historical mention of divided skirts is in America in 1840, with a reformer named Mrs. Bloomer being roundly ridiculed in the press for wearing them, but the garment did not become popular until the 1880's, when it was presented at a number of exhibitions devoted to health and wellness in both America and Europe by the Rational Dress Society, a group promoting freedom of movement in women's clothing, who also spoke against the dangers of riding sidesaddle. Divided skirts were meant to enable horseback riding with legs astride, as well as bicycling. At the time, this was quite controversial - the medical journal The Lancet called divided dresses "a monstrosity of fashion" and "decidedly injurious", and Cassell and Company's History of the Year for 1882-1883 referred to the "masculine tendencies so strongly and painfully apparent" of the garment, and called such measures "an awful example of the departure from feminine characteristics".
Fortunately for the women of WoT, who seem to spend a great deal of time in the saddle, divided skirts are quite common, and not the object of complaint or ridicule. Even though Moiraine is pictured riding sidesaddle on the cover of Eye of the World, I find it difficult to imagine that these ladies rode in such a way, which is limiting to speed and dangerous to both rider and horse on rough terrain.
If you would like to construct your own divided skirts, the method is simple. You can alter an existing dress by slitting the skirt from the hem to just below crotch level along the front and back center lines (some dresses will have a seam here, making the alteration even easier). Then, turn the dress inside out, and pin the right sides of your cuts together to create wide "legs". Sew a simple seam up each side, and voila, divided skirts. You can also make a Western style divided skirt with this pattern from Past Patterns (although you will need to re-size it, as the pattern comes in only one size), this one from Modest Handmaidens, or this one from Folkwear (which may need to be altered for a little more fullness in the leg). These instructions from the blog "Utter Momsense" give guidance on creating divided skirts from scratch without a pattern.
Non-WoT References:
- The History of the Year, Cassell and Company, 1883
- Reforming Women's Fashion 1850-1920, Patricia A. Cunningham, Kent State University Press, 2003
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