This skirt belongs to the “Amazone Costume” ensamble from the MoMu collection, made by german tailor Hermann Hoffmann. The peculiar design allowed women to wear the skirt safely while riding horses sidesaddle, as riding astride was considered improper at the time, even if wearing pants underneath.

The skirt is made of lightweight linen canvas,. The top part of the skirt is lined with cotton and presents 6 horn buttons on the front left hip as a closure, with an additional hook and two metal loops to secure it. Stitched on the fly, on the button panel side, there is one internal pocket.

The structure of this garment is asymetrical and uniquely designed to allow the wearer to keep their legs covered while riding the horse sitting sideways. The front panel has a big curved dart on the right side thar creates enough volume to accomodate one’s knee inside it, once secured around the saddle pommel. The apron-like construction is a safety measure, to avoid the skirt getting caught on the saddle in case of incidents.
When not riding, buttons on the left and right panels can be connected to eyelets in the back of the garment to cover the back and draping a skirt around the wearer’s legs. We must admit that it is hard to figure out how exactly this buttoning system worked as there are many of them placed around the skirt and we suspect some buttons may be missing. There is a square-shaped tab with a buttonhole on the bottom left corner, and a patch with an eyelet on the upper left panel. Inside the right panel there is a long elastic loop, probably used to secure the garment to the legs while riding.