The original athleisure

Innovative Victorian clothing put to the test

Philippa Battye, left, from The Adventure Syndicate, wears wearing Beatrice Bankhart’s 1910 “Sporting Garment”.

Alongside her work at The Adventure Syndicate, Phillipa is a long-distance cyclist.

This is a skirt that converts to a cloak for mountain climbers, freeing the legs for steep walking while the cape protects the wearer’s upper body from bad weather.

The garment would have been used for enduring icy mountain passes while climbing.

Ms Battye valued the extra uses for a skirt which for her ordinarily has no practical use.

She wore it as a cape which also blocked a lot of the windchill up the mountain.

She said it also shielded her during a “wild wee” and was useful as a towel after a swim.

Apart from some dirt, a few lost buttons and ripped cords, the reconstructed inventions were surprisingly durable. Aneela Mckenna, left, the founder of Mor Diversity and a professional mountain biking coach, was wearing Corallie Thomas’s 1920 “Convertible Skirt Breeches”.

This is a skirt designed to convert into breeches for horse-riding.

The skirt turned into military-style jodhpurs by way of a cleverly concealed buttoning system.

It took the longest out of all the designs to convert from one design to the other, but following the conversion Ms Mckenna was able to hop on to a horse and join in all the physical activities. And it worked well in both designs, with neither being compromised.

Ms Mckenna said: “What I love about the inventions in this research is how creative people were in dealing with the challenges that they faced.

“I can’t thank those inventors enough for what they must have put themselves through to get us to where we are today.”