Bohemian style was not really until the First World War that "many working women ... embarked on a revolution in fashion that greatly reduced the weight and restrictions imposed on them by their clothing". Some women working in factories wore trousers and the brassiere (invented in 1889 by the feminist Herminie Cadolle and patented in America by Mary Phelps Jacob in 1914) began gradually to supersede the corset. In shipyards "trouser suits" (the term, "pantsuit" was adopted in America in the 1920s) were virtually essential to enable women to shin up and down ladders. Music hall artists also helped to push the
Francis Phelps Francis Phelps Francis Robinson Phelps was an Anglican bishop in the first half of the 20th century. Phelps was born in Canada on 19 September 1863 and educated at Keble College, Oxford. he was made deacon in 1887 and ordained priest in 1888. Following curacies at Battersea, St John the Evangelist, Westminster and St John the Divine, Kennington he was rector of Thorpe Episcopi, Norfolk. Phelps and his family emigrated to South Africa in 1909, he was successively warden of St Peter’s Home in Grahamstown and Archdeacon of Grahamstown. He was appointed Dean of Grahamstown in 1914. Phelps was elected