By Tracey Blake, founder of Tracey Lynn Golf

When substantial numbers of women first began to play golf in the late 1800s, Victorian rules of dressing required they be covered from head to toe.

Nearly all golf courses were public at the time. Convention ruled then so women were dressed like they were at afternoon tea, wearing straw boater hats, skirts to the floor, high-neck blouses and buttoned shoes.

How women could swing and walk the links was a near mystery under such garments. Looking at players today, such a scene is hard to imagine. Instead, women now employ fashion and function expressing both beauty and athleticism on both public and private course worldwide.

In 1922, Vanity Fair featured a Burberrys tweed, self-belted golf suit for the latest in women’s fashion on the links. It was the first attempt at combining fashion and function, some women still continually seek.

They don’t want to dress in the tweed and wool like the 1920’s, but they also don’t want the same cotton, pastel and floral prints that have plagued the golf stores worldwide for the past 75 years.

As the striking blonde LPGA Tour pro Laura Baugh said after bursting onto the world golf scene in 1970: “I didn’t want to look like a man. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to get noticed. I just wanted to look nice and like a woman.”

The leading edge golf designers of the 21st Century, my own line, Tracey Lynn Golf, www.traceylynngolf.com, that of Linda Hipp (Lija), Claudia Romana, and Jamie Saddock, still chase the perfect combination of function – using technical fabrics that include moisture-wicking, UV protectant, stretch fabric, and style— bold colors, prints and fashionable trims.

This generation of designers would find it constraining to operate as the industry was required even as late as the 1950s. Then Golf for Women said: “Sleeveless blouses and polos have now taken root at country clubs… pedal pushers and culottes are all the rage.”

Imagine shorts and pants as controversial. Formal hats were finally on the way to the closet. The “skort” was still 20 years away.

Freedom of movement, garments that are form-fitting, guide women’s golf apparel today.

Women also want fashion and style included in their apparel. Begin the movement of après golf – golf clothing that looks perfect for the course and even better at dinner afterward. An outfit that moves with a killer drive, distracts the men and creates envy for the women still wearing knee-length khaki cotton skorts. Women want to look good on and off the green and are now seeking for the ideal clothing to fit that mentality.

The gate on drab, dowdy, women’s golf apparel has been lifted and the flood of fashion-forward, stylish golf clothing is taking over. Women want to look as good as they play. They want real golf clothing for real women. We are going to give it to them.