Fooling the Eye

       Many of the photos of ladies from the 1800s look romantic to me.  I think of Scarlett's full and fabulous shirts without thinking of the reality of wearing all the hidden structure necessary to keep such skirts puffed out and unwrinkled. 

      Around 1839, the most popular petticoats were made of horsehair.  Soon ladies began to put cording or whalebone in strategic places to help give skirts their bounce.  In 1856, an inventive Frenchman by the name of R.C. Milliet came up with the"cage" crinoline which was  constructed of 8 hoops of steel wire running around the petticoat in increasing diameter from the waist to the bottom of the skirt  The wires were held together with vertical tapes of  fabric.

        The early crinoline was dome-shaped to accomodate the rows of flounces on the skirt.  The crinoline made the skirt stand away from the body in a graceful bell.

           It's said that Empress Eugenie of France, who set the styles during the second half of the 1850s and the 1860s, loved the hoops because it kept men at a distance.  Her husband, Napoleon III, had a play written in which the leading lady wore a "grotesquelly wide" crinoline.  Eugenie immediately had one just as wide made for herself.


     By 1860, crinolines were so wide that two women were unable to go through a doorway at the same time nor sit on the same sofa together.  When walking outside, the wind could nearly upset a woman if not carry her away like a kite.




        

         The hooped crinolines were often unpredictable.  They tilted up behind or at the side when a lady stood near a table or chair.  When she sat down on a sofa, the crinoline might go up in front exposing her feet along with a shocking glimpse of a stockinged leg!  When walking, the hoop caused her skirt to sway from side to side knocking objects over.

         It was nearly impossible to wear a coat even during the coldest winter days with such wide skirts so capes and shawls had to be substituted.

         The total look wasn't always what a lady might wish as this photo probably taken in the early 1860s shows.

     In the 1860s, the shape of skirts began to change so that the front was more flat with the fabric moving to a train in the back.

     By 1866, the crinoline's popularity diminished as elegant bustles in back became the rage.   

     Although the fashion seems foolish to us today, the whole idea of the hooped crinoline was to make a lady's waist appear as tiny as possible by contrasting it with an extremely wide skirt.  Just think of the the weight of the petticoats and uncomfortable situations women of the times must have undergone. 






       Isn't it  amazing what we'll do to make ourselves look just as good as our girlfriends

           So, remember the ladies.

                         Carol