Transcendentalist Diva

Not only is it our mission to highlight the fashion efforts of today's New Brahmin, we also wish to educate on "The Originals", or individuals who historically were dubbed New Brahmin, their story and the era of fashion in which they lived.

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody is one of the many.  Born into the Peabody family in Billerica in 1804, Elizabeth grew to be a prominent figure in experimental education, literature and the transcendental movement.  Though her part in fashion is safe to say nonexistent, as you can see in the pics (don't gasp, i'm pretty sure i'm already going to hell), her role as an independent, strong, verbose female figure is irrevokable.

For education, she fought with (and later against) Bronston Alcott for a new wave of education based on not only "intellectual learning, but also from nurturing the nonrational, intuitive powers as well".  It's no wonder she moved to Salem! More after the jump...

After leaving her work with Alcott, she opened her own kindergarten
and essentially became the founder of the modern day kindergarten,
pushing for it to be an integral part of education.

As she instituted education, she continued to educate herself as well,
holding the "Conversations" in her West Street bookstore in Boston.
She held and published works by both Margaret Fuller and Nathaniel
Hawthorne, flooring the Transcendental movement.

Finally, Peabody was a huge advocate of the antislavery movement.  She
heavily promoted Mattie Griffith, author of "Autobiograpohy of a Female
Slave" and worked to convince any and all she knew that the abolition
of slavery was the only option, meeting with Lincoln twice and
witnessing the "passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished
slavery".

Now, if that doesn't set a standard of how much more we could all be
doing in this world, i don't know what would.  Not to mention, this was
all being done in an era where women struggled to have any say in
politics & education. All the while wearing corsetted dresses and planet sized skirts!

Have you ever heard of the "leg of mutton" sleeve?  The name alone
makes me want to gag.  Literally resembling a leg of mutton, these
sleeves were paired with a pinched waist and a flat-fronted, large
reared skirt.    Think the evil step sisters in Cinderella.

It's a good thing I wasn't born into that era because it seems the booty was in back then as well, becoming the erogenous zone of the time period. Women wore bustles to emphasize their tush.  Imagine that!  It's like chicken cutlets, except for your bum and not your bust!  I need a pair!

What do you think?  Should this look make a come back?  Check out Dita Von Tess!  She gets loads of praise for her look.