Crinoline
A cage of springy steel hoops that held out the enormous skirts of the 1850s and 60s – an industrial product.
Before the crinoline, women had to wear several heavy petticoats to give the skirt its width. The steel-hooped crinoline, patented in 1856, was light and made skirts larger than ever.
It was cheap enough for servants and factory workers, but it was also dangerous: skirts catching fire at open hearths caused many deaths. At the end of the 1860s the crinoline gave way to the bustle.
Materials: Steel hoops, cotton tapes and fabric
Manufacture: Factory-made in large runs, in Britain, France and the United States among other places; the steel was rolled in factories.
Horizontal steel hoops held together by vertical tapes.
A round bell in the 1850s; flat at the front and projecting at the back in the 1860s.
The maker’s stamp or label at the waistband.