A bustle is a padded undergarment used to add fullness, or support the

drapery Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles (Old French , from Late Latin ). It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothi ...

, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the

skirt A skirt is the lower part of a dress or a separate outer garment that covers a person from the waist downwards. At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of a single piece of fabric (such as pareos). However, most skirts ar ...

in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. Heavy fabric tended to pull the back of a skirt down and flatten it. As a result a woman's

petticoat A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing, a type of undergarment worn under a skirt or a dress. Its precise meaning varies over centuries and between countries. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', in current British E ...

ed skirt would lose its shape during everyday wear (from merely sitting down or moving about). USpatent63234 1867

History

In the early stages of the fashion for the bustle, the fullness to the back of the skirts was carried quite low and often fanned out to create a train. The transition from the voluminous crinoline-enhanced skirts of the 1850s and 1860s can be seen in the loops and gathers of fabric and trimmings worn during this period. The bustle later evolved into a much more pronounced humped shape on the back of the skirt immediately below the waist, with the fabric of the skirts falling quite sharply to the floor, changing the shape of the silhouette.

Transition from crinoline (1867–1872)

As the fashion for

crinoline A crinoline is a stiff or structured petticoat designed to hold out a woman's skirt, popular at various times since the mid-19th century. Originally, crinoline described a stiff fabric made of horsehair ("crin") and cotton or linen which was ...

s wore on, their shape changed. Instead of the large bell-like silhouette previously in vogue, they began to flatten out at the front and sides, creating more fullness at the back of the skirts. One type of crinoline, the crinolette, created a shape very similar to the one produced by a bustle. Crinolettes were more restrictive than traditional crinolines, as the flat front and bulk created around the posterior made sitting down more difficult for the wearer. The excess skirt fabric created by this alteration in shape was looped around to the back, again creating increased fullness

Early bustle (1869–1876)

The bustle later developed into a feature of fashion on its own after the overskirt of the late 1860s was draped up toward the back and some kind of support was needed for the new draped shape. Fullness of some sort was still considered necessary to make the waist look smaller and the bustle eventually replaced the crinoline completely. The bustle was worn in different shapes for most of the 1870s and 1880s, with a short period of non-bustled, flat-backed dresses from 1878 to 1882.

Late bustle (1881–1889)

The bustle reappeared in late 1881, and was exaggerated to become a major fashion feature in the mid and late 1880s, in 1885 reaching preposterous proportions to modern eyes, as used in the play '' Arms and the Man'' by

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

. The fashion for large bustles ended in 1889.

1889–1913

The bustle then survived into the 1890s and early 20th century, as a skirt support was still needed and the stylish shape dictated a curve in the back of the skirt to balance the curve of the bust in front. The bustle had completely disappeared by 1905, as the long corset of the early 20th century was now successful in shaping the body to protrude behind.

Contemporary fashion

Bustles and bustle gowns are rarely worn in contemporary society. Notable exceptions occur in the realm of haute couture, bridal fashion, steampunk fashion and Lolita fashion. Bustles are employed as part of period costuming in film and theatre: an example would be the 1992 film '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'', for which costume designer Eiko Ishioka won an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...

. The film features several extravagant bustle gowns created for female leads Winona Ryder and Sadie Frost.

Other usage

* Bustle was also the term used for an additional external space at the rear of a

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful e ...

's turret used for storing extra equipment, a notable usage being the added box at the rear of the turret on the Sherman Firefly variant. Its positioning on the vehicle resembling the similar placement of the bustle as used on the dress item. * In sailboat design, a bustle stern refers to any kind of

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

that has a large "bustle" or blister at the waterline below the stern to prevent the stern from "squatting" when getting underway, or to a similar shape produced by the IOR measuring system in the late '70, '80 and early '90s. * The term bustleback was used to describe cars styled with an additional rear protrusion that were produced in the early 1980s, such as the Cadillac Bustleback Seville.

Gallery

File:USpatent131840 1872.gif, The crinolette File:Dimitybustle1881.gif, Bustle apparatus (1881) File:Woman's Promenade Dress LACMA M.2007.211.773a-d (5 of 5).jpg, Bustle dress from 1870 File:Bustle.png, Mid-1880s fashion plate File:Bustle in grey linen, New York, 1885.jpg File:Bustle with brown and cream stripes, 1870s.jpg, Bustle with brown and cream stripes, 1870s File:Bustle MET CI45.79.2 S.jpg File:THE CRINOLETTA DISFIGURANS AnOldParasite in aNewForm.png, A criticism of the bustle fashion File:Bustle1870PunchOrTheLondonCharivarl.jpg, Satirical image comparing the look of a woman wearing a bustle to that of a snail wearing a dress File:Darwin sexual caricature.gif, Caricature of Charles Darwin contemplating a bustle as a curiosity of natural history, from '' Fun'', 16th Nov, 1872

References

External links

* {{Historical clothing 1860s fashion 1870s fashion 1880s fashion 1890s fashion 1900s fashion Foundation garments History of clothing (Western fashion) History of fashion Lingerie Victorian fashion Women's clothing