The Grecian bend was a term applied first to a stooped posture which became fashionable c. 1820, named after the gracefully-inclined figures seen in the art of ancient Greece. It was also the name of a

dance move Dance moves or dance steps (more complex dance moves are called dance patterns, dance figures, dance movements, or dance variations) are usually isolated, defined, and organized so that beginning dancers can learn and use them independently of each ...

introduced to polite society in America just before the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. The "bend" was considered very daring at the time. The stoop or the silhouette created by the fashion in women's dress for

corset A corset is a support garment commonly worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape, traditionally a smaller waist or larger bottom, for aesthetic or medical purposes (either for the duration of wearing it or with a more lasting effe ...

s, crinolettes and

bustle A bustle is a padded undergarment used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. ...

s by 1869 was also called the Grecian bend. Contemporary illustrations often show a woman with a large

and a very small

parasol An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally used ...

, bending forward. The term was also given to those who suffered from

decompression sickness Decompression sickness (abbreviated DCS; also called divers' disease, the bends, aerobullosis, and caisson disease) is a medical condition caused by dissolved gases emerging from solution as bubbles inside the body tissues during decompressio ...

, or "the bends", due to working in caissons during the building of the

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The name was given because afflicted individuals characteristically arched their backs in the same manner as the then popular "Grecian bend" fashion.Kumar V., Abbas A., Fausto N. (2005), Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, 7th ed. Elsevier Inc.

Appearance in popular music

There were many songs published with "Grecian Bend" in their titles. The term "Grecian bend" appears in the song "The Garden Where The Praties Grow" by Johnny Patterson:

Notes

External links

* {{cite web, author=Onion, Rebecca, url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/04/grecian-bend-a-laughable-fashion-trend-from-the-1860s.html, title=The "Grecian Bend": The Most Preposterous Ladies' Fashion Trend of the 1860s, work=

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

, date=2013-04-03 History of clothing (Western fashion)