Hiding in plain sight is a military strategy usually associated with terrorists and spies, not respectable Edwardian women. But we all know appearances can be deceptive and many of the suffragettes marching in flowery picture hats and ostrich feather boas were involved in one of the most violent guerilla campaigns ever mounted in this country.

Dress is a powerful form of communication. No-one knew this better than the media-savvy leadership of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). The suffragettes wanted to avoid accusations of eccentricity or spinsterish masculinity. They recognised their best chance of winning the vote was to align themselves, at least outwardly, with Edwardian ideals of femininity, even if they were engaging in defiantly unladylike activities under the radar.

The WSPU was also canny enough to learn from the mistakes of previous generations. The fight for female emancipation had been going on for decades. In the 19th century, the drive for equality became closely associated with the dress reform movement, which sought to free women from the constriction of a Victorian silhouette, with its attendant corsetry and crinolines.

In 1851, American women’s rights campaigner Amelia Bloomer introduced her eponymous suit, a loose tunic worn over baggy trousers. It was only taken up by a few proto- feminists but the short-lived Bloomer suit was a gift for the media, thereafter used in cartoons to signify the stereotypical ‘strong-minded woman’ along with thick glasses, galoshes, cigar and ‘42in waist’. Trouser-wearing females were disturbing subversives, fuelling paranoia about the perceived dangers of gender equality. Which is why, as Sylvia Pankhurst noted, “Many suffragists spend more money on clothes than they can comfortably afford,  rather than run the risk of being considered outré, and doing harm to the cause.”

How the suffragettes used fashion to further their cause