Retract and Extend [1]
When the waist had to be emphasized once again in the 1830s and the ideal body looked like an hourglass, stays returned, this time in the form of a corset. This differed from stays in the way it separated the breasts. More and more women were able to wear corsets thanks to more modern and cheaper manufacturing methods. The hourglass shape also meant that the volume of the skirt grew, with a growing number of petticoats under it. The resulting weight exerted pressure on the hips and was a strain on the back.
It was therefore a relief when the crinoline came in the 1850s. Narrow steel hoops held together by vertical cotton tapes held the skirt out. The crinoline could also be folded up. It saved meters of materials for petticoats, and it became very popular even though it took up a lot of space.
In the 1870s the skirt ceased to be equally wide all round; instead the extension was gathered at the back, with a heavy emphasis on the bottom, which protruded with the aid of the bustle, a frame attached to the waist, which held the shape of the skirt outwards and upwards. Frames like these in the form of cloth-covered hoops (such as panniers) had also been used in the eighteenth-century, with one on each hip, to give the skirt greater width.
Panniers to give the skirt greater width.
Corset from the late nineteenth century.
The same design for panniers was used for sleeve pads of the 1830s, which supported leg-of-mutton sleeves that were in fashion at the time.
Sleeve pads.
Extremely wide skirts could be obtained using hooped petticoats, but these needed so much cloth they were banned.
Princess Pauline de Waldeck at Pyrmont wearing a bustle-dress.
Photograph courtesy of Gösta Florman, Stockholm.
A bustle from an inside view.
A bustle from an outside view.
Woman in a crinoline dress.
Photograph courtesy of W.A. Eurenius & P.L. Quist (Stockholm).
Reference:
[1] 'Power of Fashion - 300 years of Clothing,' B. Eldvik, Catalogue for the exhibition, opened at Nordiska Museet (February, 2010).
When the waist had to be emphasized once again in the 1830s and the ideal body looked like an hourglass, stays returned, this time in the form of a corset. This differed from stays in the way it separated the breasts. More and more women were able to wear corsets thanks to more modern and cheaper manufacturing methods. The hourglass shape also meant that the volume of the skirt grew, with a growing number of petticoats under it. The resulting weight exerted pressure on the hips and was a strain on the back.
It was therefore a relief when the crinoline came in the 1850s. Narrow steel hoops held together by vertical cotton tapes held the skirt out. The crinoline could also be folded up. It saved meters of materials for petticoats, and it became very popular even though it took up a lot of space.
In the 1870s the skirt ceased to be equally wide all round; instead the extension was gathered at the back, with a heavy emphasis on the bottom, which protruded with the aid of the bustle, a frame attached to the waist, which held the shape of the skirt outwards and upwards. Frames like these in the form of cloth-covered hoops (such as panniers) had also been used in the eighteenth-century, with one on each hip, to give the skirt greater width.
The same design for panniers was used for sleeve pads of the 1830s, which supported leg-of-mutton sleeves that were in fashion at the time.
Extremely wide skirts could be obtained using hooped petticoats, but these needed so much cloth they were banned.
Photograph courtesy of Gösta Florman, Stockholm.
Photograph courtesy of W.A. Eurenius & P.L. Quist (Stockholm).
Reference:
[1] 'Power of Fashion - 300 years of Clothing,' B. Eldvik, Catalogue for the exhibition, opened at Nordiska Museet (February, 2010).
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