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
Helen Watson Phelps Helen Watson Phelps Helen Watson Phelps (1864–1944) was an American painter. A native of Attleboro, Massachusetts, Phelps is known to have received some training at the Académie Julian and with Raphaël Collin in Paris. While there she showed work at the Paris Salon; she also exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Society of American Artists during her career. She received awards for her paintings at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in 1901, and from the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors in 1914, and she was represented