crinoline

Summary

Crinoline constructed of cotton tapes and metal hoops; extending from waist to very wide hem; nine hoops to knee level, the top four cut away at centre front; fourteen hoops below, slanting upward to back and down to front, cut away in front and hinged to whole hoop at base; three small half hoops at centre front attached to hoop at knee level; hoops connected from top to bottom with five vertical tapes, two more tapes attached at cetnre back and slanting out to hem. Entire structure suspended from cotton tape waistband and fastening with metal catch. Waistband stamped "In order to secure the perfect working of this skirt it must fit loosely over the hips".

Display Label

Typically, this cage crinoline is made of a series of metal wire hoops attached by cotton tapes to a waistband. The hoops at the waist hang horizontally but the lower ones are set in diagonally, and cut away at the front. This design would have improved the way the crinoline moved when the wearer sat down or walked up stairs. If all the hoops were fixed horizontally the whole skirt would have swayed, whilst by angling some hoops, the front does not tip up revealing the underwear below. Magazines like Punch had great fun in poking fun at crinolines, particularly as working girls like factory workers and servants insisted on also wearing their "cages". This example is called the Colby skirt, and the waist band tells the wearer that "In order to secure the perfect working of this skirt it must fit loosely over the hips" and gives the date on which the patent was registered, 6th February 1866. Whereas in the later 1850's skirts were very wide in an equal circle around the body, by the 1860's emphasis had moved to the back with flattening at the front. The crinoline was worn for about ten years, until 1868, when skirts narrowed substantially.