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A crinoline is a stiff or structured
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 Eng ...
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 used to make underskirts and as a dress lining. The term crin or crinoline continues to be applied to a nylon stiffening tape used for interfacing and lining hemlines in the 21st century. By the
1850s The 1850s (pronounced "eighteen-fifties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1850, and ended on December 31, 1859. It was a very turbulent decade, as wars such as the Crimean War, shifted and shook European politic ...
the term crinoline was more usually applied to the fashionable silhouette provided by horsehair petticoats, and to the
hoop skirt A hoop skirt or hoopskirt is a women's undergarment worn in various periods to hold the skirt extended into a fashionable shape. It originated as a modest-sized mechanism for holding long skirts away from one's legs, to stay cooler in hot climat ...
s that replaced them in the mid-1850s. In form and function these hoop skirts were similar to the 16th- and 17th-century farthingale and to 18th-century
panniers A pannier is a basket, bag, box, or similar container, carried in pairs either slung over the back of a beast of burden, or attached to the sides of a bicycle or motorcycle. The term derives from a Middle English borrowing of the Old French ' ...
, in that they too enabled skirts to spread even wider and more fully. The steel-hooped cage crinoline, first patented in April 1856 by R.C. Milliet in Paris, and by their agent in Britain a few months later, became extremely popular. Steel cage crinolines were mass-produced in huge quantity, with factories across the Western world producing tens of thousands in a year. Alternative materials, such as
whalebone Baleen is a filter-feeding system inside the mouths of baleen whales. To use baleen, the whale first opens its mouth underwater to take in water. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen and r ...
, cane, gutta-percha and even inflatable
caoutchouc Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
(natural rubber) were all used for hoops, although steel was the most popular. At its widest point, the crinoline could reach a circumference of up to six yards, although by the late 1860s, crinolines were beginning to reduce in size. By the early 1870s, the smaller crinolette and the
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. ...
had largely replaced the crinoline. Crinolines were worn by women of every social standing and class across the Western world, from royalty to factory workers. This led to widespread media scrutiny and criticism, particularly in satirical magazines such as '' Punch''. They were also hazardous if worn without due care. Thousands of women died in the mid-19th century as a result of their hooped skirts catching fire. Alongside fire, other hazards included the hoops being caught in machinery, carriage wheels, gusts of wind, or other obstacles. The crinoline silhouette was revived several times in the 20th century, particularly in the late 1940s as a result of
Christian Dior Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE, which is now owned by parent company LVMH. His fashion houses ar ...
's "New Look" of 1947. The flounced nylon and net petticoats worn in the 1950s and 1960s to poof out skirts also became known as crinolines even when there were no hoops in their construction. In the mid-1980s Vivienne Westwood designed the mini-crini, a
mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
-length crinoline which was highly influential on
1980s fashion Fashion of the 1980s was characterized by a rejection of 1970s fashion. Punk fashion began as a reaction against both the hippie movement of the past decades and the materialist values of the current decade. The first half of the decade was rela ...
. Late 20th and early 21st century designers such as John Galliano and
Alexander McQueen Lee Alexander McQueen CBE (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen label in 1992, and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His achievements in fashion ...
have become famous for their updated crinoline designs. Since the 1980s and well into the 21st century the crinoline has remained a popular option for formal evening dresses, wedding dresses, and ball gowns.


Etymology

The name ''crinoline'' is often described as a combination of the Latin word ("hair") and/or the French word ("horsehair"); with the Latin word ("thread" or "
flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...
," which was used to make linen), describing the materials used in the original textile.Yarwood, pp.125–127
/ref>Martin & Koda, p.119
/ref> In the 21st century, the term crin is still used to describe a type of woven nylon flat braid, available in various widths and used for stiffening and providing bulk-free body to hemlines, serving the same purpose as the original crin/crinoline. Crin tape/trim is typically transparent, though it also comes in black, white and cream colors. It is also described as horsehair braid or crinoline tape.


Pre-1850

The crinoline was not the first garment designed to support the wearer's skirts in a fashionable shape. Whilst the bell-shaped skirts seen on
statuettes A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with clay ...
from the ancient Minoan civilization are often compared to crinolines, particularly under the assumption that hoops were required to retain their shape, there is no evidence to confirm this and the theory is usually dismissed. The crinoline's ancestors are more typically recognised as the Spanish , later known as the farthingale, widely worn in Europe from the late 15th century to the early 17th century, and the side-hoops and panniers worn throughout the 18th century.Gernsheim
p.44
The horsehair fabric called crinoline was first noted by 1829, when it was offered for lining and dress-making.Cunnington, p.89 That year,
Rudolph Ackermann Rudolph Ackermann (20 April 1764 in Schneeberg, Electorate of Saxony – 30 March 1834 in Finchley, London) was an Anglo-German bookseller, inventor, lithographer, publisher and businessman. Biography He attended the Latin school in Stollbe ...
's ''Repository of Fashions'' described the new textile as a "fine clear stuff, not unlike in appearance to
leno James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009 ...
, but of a very strong and durable description: it is made in different colours; grey, and the colour of unbleached
cambric Cambric or batiste, is a fine dense cloth. It is a lightweight plain-weave fabric, originally from the commune of Cambrai (in present-day northern France), woven greige (neither bleached nor dyed), then bleached, piece-dyed, and often ...
are most in favour." Petticoats made of horsehair crinoline appeared around 1839, proving so successful that the name 'crinoline' began to refer to supportive petticoats in general, rather than solely to the material. By 1847, crinoline fabric was being used as a stiffening for skirt linings, although English women preferred separate crinoline fabric petticoats which were beginning to collapse under the increasing weight of the skirts.Cunnington, p.145 One alternative to horsehair crinoline was the quilted petticoat stuffed with down or feathers, such as that reportedly worn in 1842 by Lady Aylesbury.Cunnington & Cunnington
p.147
However, quilted skirts were not widely produced until the early 1850s. In about 1849, it was possible to buy stiffened and corded cotton fabric for making petticoats, marketed as 'crinoline', and designed as a substitute for the horsehair textile.Cunnington, pp.165–169 The artificial crinoline with hoops did not emerge until the 1850s.


Late 19th century


1850s–60s

The cage crinoline made out of
spring steel Spring steel is a name given to a wide range of steels used in the manufacture of different products, including swords, saw blades, springs and many more. These steels are generally low-alloy manganese, medium-carbon steel or high-carbon stee ...
wire was first introduced in the 1850s, with the earliest British patent for a metal crinoline (described as a "skeleton petticoat of steel springs fastened to tape") granted in July 1856.Gernsheim
p.45
Breward, pp.157–160
/ref> Alison Gernsheim suggests that the unidentified French inventor was probably R. C. Milliet of
Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerlan ...
, as the July 1856 patent was filed by their British agent, C. Amet. Milliet had already patented a in Paris on 24 April 1856 which was described as comprising "elastic extensible circles joined together by vertical bands." Following its introduction, the women's rights advocate
Amelia Bloomer Amelia Jenks Bloomer (May 27, 1818 – December 30, 1894) was an American newspaper editor, women's rights and temperance advocate. Even though she did not create the women's clothing reform style known as bloomers, her name became associat ...
felt that her concerns about the hampering nature of multiple petticoats had been resolved, and dropped dress reform as an issue.D'Alleva
p.243
Diana de Marly, in her biography of the couturier
Charles Frederick Worth Charles Frederick Worth (13 October 1825 – 10 March 1895) was an English fashion designer who founded the House of Worth, one of the foremost fashion houses of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He is considered by many fashion historians to ...
, noted that by 1858 there existed steel factories catering solely to crinoline manufacturers, and shops that sold nothing else but crinolines. One of the most significant manufacturers of crinolines was that of Thomson & Co., founded by an American with branches across Europe and the United States. At the height of their success, up to four thousand crinolines were produced by Thomson's London factory in a day, whilst another plant in Saxony manufactured 9.5 million crinolines over a twelve-year period.Gernsheim
p.46
In 1859, the New York factory, which employed about a thousand girls, used of steel wire every week to produce between three and four thousand crinolines per day, while the rival Douglas & Sherwood factory in Manhattan used one ton of steel each week in manufacturing hoop skirts. The crinoline needed to be rigid enough to support the skirts in their accustomed shape, but also flexible enough to be temporarily pressed out of shape and spring back afterwards. Other materials used for crinolines included
whalebone Baleen is a filter-feeding system inside the mouths of baleen whales. To use baleen, the whale first opens its mouth underwater to take in water. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen and r ...
, gutta-percha and
vulcanised Vulcanization (British: Vulcanisation) is a range of processes for hardening rubbers. The term originally referred exclusively to the treatment of natural rubber with sulfur, which remains the most common practice. It has also grown to include ...
caoutchouc Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
(natural rubber).''Crinoline and Whales''
Dublin University Magazine, pp.537–538
The idea of inflatable hoops was short-lived as they were easily punctured, prone to collapse, and due to the use of brimstone in the manufacture of rubber, they smelled unpleasant. Although hard rubber hoops of gutta-percha worked satisfactorily at first, they were brittle and easily crushed without recovering their form. Despite objections that the sharp points of snapped steels were hazardous, lightweight steel was clearly the most successful option. It reduced the number of petticoats and their weight, and offered increased freedom of movement of the legs. However, hasty or careless movements in a hoop skirt could lead to accidentally revealing more than intended. An advertisement published in ''The Lady's Newspaper'' in 1863 for a cage crinoline with waved hoops attempted to reassure the potential customer that while wearing it, activities such as climbing stairs, passing to her theatre seat, dropping into armchairs and leaning against furniture would be possible without hindrance either to herself or to others around her. Despite some claims, such as that by the historian Max von Boehm, that the largest crinolines measured up to around, the photohistorian Alison Gernsheim concluded that the maximum realistic circumference was in fact between .Gernsheim
p.47
Whilst a loosely gathered skirt draped over a large hoop would certainly require a higher yardage, Gernsheim noted that hems were highly improbable.Gernsheim
p.48
Staged photographs showing women wearing exaggeratedly large crinolines were quite popular, such as a widely published sequence of five stereoscope views showing a woman dressing with the assistance of several maids who require long poles to lift her dress over her head and other ingenious means of navigating her enormous hoopskirt.Ginsburg, p.45 Such photographs, which re-enacted contemporary caricatures rather than accurately reflecting reality, were aimed towards the voyeur's market. However, it was a fact that the size of the crinoline often caused difficulties in passing through doors, boarding carriages and generally moving about. By the late 1860s many crinolines were of a significantly reduced size, as noted by a Victoria and Albert Museum curator observing the sizes of cage crinolines in the Museum's collection.


Crinolettes and 1880s revival

The crinoline began to fall out of fashion from about 1866. A modified version, the crinolette, was a transitional garment bridging the gap between the cage crinoline and the bustle. Fashionable from 1867 through to the mid-1870s, the crinolette was typically composed of half-hoops, sometimes with internal lacing or ties designed to allow adjustment of fullness and shape.Johnston; ''Crinolines, Crinolettes, Bustles and Corsets''
/ref> The crinolette was still worn in the early 1880s, with an 1881 article describing it as sticking out solely behind, as opposed to projecting "hideously at the side" like the crinoline. It is possible that some of the smaller crinolines that survive were worn in combination with separate bustles, rather than in isolation.Koda
pp.130–133.
During the 1880s the cage crinoline was revived, with hoop petticoats designed to accommodate the extremely large bustles of the period and support the skirt hems. One of the mid-1880s styles was called the lobster pot due to its resemblance to a
lobster trap A lobster trap or lobster pot is a portable trap that traps lobsters or crayfish and is used in lobster fishing. In Scotland (chiefly in the north), the word creel is used to refer to a device used to catch lobsters and other crustaceans. A ...
. Due to the extreme weight of the fabrics of the decade, the hoops of the crinolines were crossed over each other behind the legs in order to support and hold the skirts firmly in place. As with the earlier cage crinolines, sprung steel, wire and cane were used.


Critical response

Unlike the farthingales and
panniers A pannier is a basket, bag, box, or similar container, carried in pairs either slung over the back of a beast of burden, or attached to the sides of a bicycle or motorcycle. The term derives from a Middle English borrowing of the Old French ' ...
, the crinoline was worn by women of every social class. The fashion swiftly became the subject of intense scrutiny in Western media.Maxwell, pp.16–18
/ref>Thomas
p.91.
Critical articles on the crinoline were published by the Hungarian journal (1858) and the Bulgarian journalist Petko Slaveykov in 1864. In the 1850s, the Welsh poet
Dafydd Jones Dafydd Jones (born 24 June 1979) is a Welsh former rugby union rugby player of the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, who played for the Scarlets in the Celtic League, playing in the back row, scoring nine tries (45 points) in 104 appearances. He also p ...
wrote a ballad decrying the fashion. A similar sentiment was expressed by a Russian song published in 1854, where the singer complains about his wife having assumed the fashion. In 1855, an observer of Queen Victoria's state visit to Paris complained that despite the number of foreigners present, Western fashions such as the crinoline had diluted national dress to such an extent that everyone, whether Turkish, Scottish, Spanish or Tyrolean, dressed alike.Blau
p.154
Victoria herself is popularly said to have detested the fashion, inspiring a song in ''Punch'' that started: "Long live our gracious Queen/Who won't wear crinoline!"Gernsheim
p.44. NB: Gernsheim misquotes the rhyme as "God Save our gracious Queen."
Gernsheim has noted that the Queen was often photographed in crinolines, and suggests that this misunderstanding came from a request made by Victoria that female guests attending her daughter's marriage in 1858 should leave their hoops off due to limited space in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace. The crinoline was perceived as a signifier of social identity, with a popular subject for cartoons being that of maids wearing crinolines like their mistresses, much to the higher-class ladies' disapproval. The questions of servants in crinoline and the related social concerns were raised by
George Routledge George Routledge (23 September 1812 – 13 December 1888) was a British book publisher and the founder of the publishing house Routledge. Early life He was born in Brampton, Cumberland on 23 September 1812. Career Routledge gained his early ex ...
in an etiquette manual published in 1875, where he criticised London housemaids for wearing hoops at work.Routledge
p.127
As the girls knelt to scrub the doorsteps, Routledge described how their hoops rose to expose their lower bodies, inspiring street harassment from
errand boy A courier is a person or organisation that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are ...
s and other male passers-by. Routledge firmly opined that servants ought to save their fashionable garments for their leisure periods, and dress appropriately for their work. However, this was challenged by some servants who saw attempts to control their dress as equivalent to controlling their liberty, and refused to work for employers who tried to forbid crinolines.
Arthur Munby Arthur Joseph Munby (19 August 1828 – 29 January 1910) was a British diarist, poet, portrait photographer, barrister and solicitor. He is also known by his initials, A. J. Munby. Munby in Victorian Society The Victorian Era (1837-1901) was ...
observed that in the "barbarous locality" of
Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington t ...
, the sight of a female
colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
worker wearing trousers was "not half as odd as a woman wearing a crinoline," exposing his own upper-class attitudes. In Australia, poorer rural women were photographed posing outside their slab huts, wearing their best dresses with crinolines. The French sociologist and economist Frédéric le Play carried out surveys of French working-class families' wardrobes from 1850 to 1875, in which he found that two women had crinolines in their wardrobe, both wives of skilled workers.Crane
p.57.
One, the fashion-conscious wife of a glove-maker, owned two crinolines and eleven dresses, although her usual everyday clothing consisted of wooden shoes and printed aprons. In America, the mid-19th century crinoline has become popularly associated with the image of the Southern Belle, a young woman from the American Deep South's upper socioeconomic, slave-owning planter classes. However, as in Europe and elsewhere, the crinoline was far from exclusively worn by wealthy white women. Both black and white women in America of all classes and social standings wore hooped skirts, including First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and her African-American dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley, who created many of Lincoln's own extravagant crinolines. The difficulties associated with the garment, such as its size, the problems and hazards associated with wearing and moving about in it, and the fact that it was worn so widely by women of all social classes, were frequently exaggerated and parodied in satirical articles and illustrations such as those in '' Punch''. Alexander Maxwell has summarised crinoline mockery as expressing the male authors' insecurity and fears that women, whose crinolines took up "enough space for five," would eventually "conquer" mankind. Julia Thomas, observing the extent of ''Punchs anti-crinoline sentiment and mockery, noted that the magazine's attacks, rather than crushing the fashion, exacerbated and even invented the phenomenon of "crinolinemania."


Hazards

The flammability of the crinoline was widely reported. Although trustworthy statistics on crinoline-related fatalities are rare, Florence Nightingale estimated that at least 630 women died from their clothes catching fire in 1863–1864. One such incident, the death of a 14-year-old kitchenmaid called Margaret Davey was reported in '' The Times'' on 13 February 1863. Her dress, "distended by a crinoline," ignited as she stood on the fender of the fireplace to reach some spoons on the mantelpiece, and she died as a result of extensive burns. The Deputy-Coroner, commenting that he was "astonished to think that the mortality from such a fashion was not brought more conspicuously under the notice of the Registrar-General," passed a verdict of "Accidental death by fire, caused through crinoline." A similar case was reported later that year, when 16-year-old Emma Musson died after a piece of burning coke rolled from the kitchen fire to ignite her crinoline. A month later, on 8 December 1863, a serious fire at the Church of the Company of Jesus in Santiago, Chile, killed between two and three thousand people. The severity of the death toll is credited in part to the large amounts of flammable fabric that made up the women's crinoline dresses. Two notable victims of crinoline fires were William Wilde's illegitimate daughters, Emily and Mary, who died in November 1871 of burns sustained after their evening dresses caught fire. Although flame-retardant fabrics were available, these were thought unattractive and were unpopular. Other risks associated with the crinoline were that it could get caught in other people's feet, carriage wheels or furniture, or be caught by sudden gusts of wind, blowing the wearer off her feet. In 1859, while participating in a paper chase, Louisa, Duchess of Manchester, caught her hoop while climbing over a stile, and was left with the entirety of her crinoline and skirts thrown over her head, revealing her scarlet drawers to the assembled company. The crinoline was worn by some factory workers, leading to the textiles firm Courtaulds instructing female employees in 1860 to leave their hoops and crinolines at home.''Corsets and Crinoline''
/ref>
Cecil Willett Cunnington Cecil Willett Cunnington (22 November 1878 – 21 January 1961) was an English medical doctor and collector, writer and historian on costume and fashion. When he died ''The Times'' called him the ''Leading Authority on English Costume''. He a ...
described seeing a photograph of female employees in the
Bryant and May Bryant & May was a British company created in the mid-19th century specifically to make matches. Their original Bryant & May Factory was located in Bow, London. They later opened other match factories in the United Kingdom and Australia, suc ...
match factories wearing crinolines while at work.Cunnington, p.207 A report in '' The Cork Examiner'' of 2 June 1864 recorded the death of Ann Rollinson from injuries sustained after her crinoline was caught by a revolving machinery shaft in a mangling room at Firwood bleach works.


20th century

During World War I, the "war crinoline" became fashionable, between 1915 and 1917. This style featured wide, full mid-calf length skirts, and was described as practical (for enabling freedom of walking and movement) and patriotic, as the sight of attractively dressed women was expected to cheer up soldiers on leave.Steele (1988), pp.237–238. The full skirts of the war crinoline endured in the robe de style of the 1920s. In the late 1930s, just before the outbreak of World War II, there was a revival of the hooped crinoline from designers such as
Edward Molyneux Edward Henry Molyneux () (5 September 1891 – 23 March 1974) was a leading British fashion designer whose salon in Paris was in operation from 1919 until 1950. He was characterised as a modernist designer who played with the refinements of co ...
, who put hoops in both day skirts and evening gowns, and Norman Hartnell, whose late 1930s Winterhalter-inspired crinoline designs for Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother were so successful that the Queen is popularly (if inaccurately) credited with having single-handedly brought crinolines back into fashion. Both as Queen, and as the Queen Mother, Elizabeth adopted the traditional bell-shaped crinoline as her signature look for evening wear and state occasions. The film ''
Gone With The Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''Gone with the Wind'' ...
'', released in 1939, inspired the American fashion for prom dresses with crinolines in Spring 1940. Following World War II, crinolines were once again revived by designers such as
Christian Dior Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE, which is now owned by parent company LVMH. His fashion houses ar ...
, whose 1947 "New Look" featured full skirts supported by stiffened underskirts. Loschek has suggested that, by explicitly referencing the
Belle Époque The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era ...
era and reviving historic styles of corsets and crinolines in his "New Look," Dior was the first designer to introduce the idea of
postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
to fashion, albeit unconsciously. Crinolines were popular throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s. The American designer Anne Fogarty was particularly noted for her full-skirted designs worn over crinoline petticoats, which were always separate garments from the dress to enable ease of movement and travelling.Milbank, p.188 '' Life'' reported in 1953 on how one of Fogarty's crinoline designs from 1951 was almost exactly duplicated by a design in Dior's latest collection. Hooped, tiered and/or ruffled crinoline petticoats in nylon, net and cotton were widely worn, as were skirts with integrated hoops. In the mid-1980s Vivienne Westwood revisited the crinoline, taking inspiration from the ballet '' Petrushka'' to produce miniskirt length versions that she christened the "mini-crini." The mini-crini silhouette influenced the work of other designers such as
Christian Lacroix Christian Marie Marc Lacroix (; born 16 May 1951) is a French fashion designer. The name may also refer to the company he founded. Lacroix's designs combine luxury and insouciance. He prefers artisanal trades, fringe, bead, and embroidery. He's ...
's "puffball" skirts. The Westwood mini-crini was described in 1989 as a combination of two conflicting ideals – the crinoline, representing a "mythology of restriction and encumbrance," and the miniskirt, representing an "mythology of liberation."Evans & Thornton, p.148-150 Late 20th- and early 21st-century fashion designers such as
Alexander McQueen Lee Alexander McQueen CBE (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen label in 1992, and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His achievements in fashion ...
and John Galliano often used crinolines in their designs, with the skirt of one of Galliano's ballgowns for Dior in 1998 reaching a width of 9 feet. Galliano specifically visited the original crinoline manufacturers that Christian Dior himself had used in order to inform and influence his own designs. McQueen was fascinated by the crinoline and often referenced it in his collections, cutting away leather ballgowns to reveal the cage beneath, or making it out of silver-decorated cut metal. One of McQueen's most notable crinoline designs was modelled by the amputee model
Aimee Mullins Aimee Mullins is an American athlete, actress, and public speaker. She was born with a medical condition that resulted in the amputation of both of her legs beneath the knee. She is the first amputee to compete against able-bodied athletes in N ...
in a series of photographs by Nick Knight for '' Dazed and Confused'', in which Mullin's cage crinoline, deliberately worn without overskirts in order to reveal her prosthetic legs, was described as suggesting both a walking frame and a cage to "contain the unruliness of the unwhole". The images from this shoot were declared among the most significant commercial images of 1998, representing Knight and McQueen's dedication to presenting alternatives to the traditional concepts of fashion and physical beauty. After McQueen's death in 2010, his successor,
Sarah Burton Sarah Jane Burton (née Heard; born 1974) is an English fashion designer, currently creative director of fashion brand Alexander McQueen. She designed the wedding dress of Catherine Middleton for her wedding to Prince William in 2011. In 2012, ...
, continued the tradition of designing crinolines for the McQueen brand.


21st century

Crinolines continue to be worn well into the 21st century, typically as part of formal outfits such as
evening gown An evening gown, evening dress or gown is a long dress usually worn at formal occasions. The drop ranges from ballerina (mid-calf to just above the ankles), tea (above the ankles), to full-length. Such gowns are typically worn with evening ...
s, prom dresses,
quinceañera A (also , , , and ) is a celebration of a girl's 15th birthday. It has pre-Columbian roots in Mexico (Aztecs) and is widely celebrated by girls throughout Latin America. The girl celebrating her 15th birthday is a (; feminine form of "15- ...
dresses, and wedding dresses. 1950s and 1960s style net crinolines are a traditional element of costumes for square dancing and
clogging Clogging is a type of folk dance practiced in the United States, in which the dancer's footwear is used percussively by striking the heel, the toe, or both against a floor or each other to create audible rhythms, usually to the downbeat with th ...
. They are also popular garments for attending 1950s and 1960s influenced rockabilly events such as Viva Las Vegas. The steampunk movement has also appropriated cage crinolines along with other elements of 19th century fashion such as corsets and the top hat for its costuming.Williams, Laing & Frost
p.178
Gleason & Jete
p.45p.20
/ref> In some contexts, the traditional hooped crinoline may be seen as controversial, as in early 2015 when the University of Georgia reportedly requested hoop skirts not be worn to certain fraternity events due to their perceived association with Southern Belles and the slave-owning, upper socioeconomic classes of the American Deep South. The reason for the proposed ban was linked to the SAE racism incident earlier that year, with several articles noting it was a well-intentioned attempt to avoid the University of Georgia fraternities facing charges of racial insensitivity. It was noted that hoop skirts and crinolines had been worn by both black and white women of all classes and social standings during the historical period in question, and that despite popular associations, they were not exclusive to the image of the Southern Belle.


References


Bibliography

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Further reading

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External links

* {{Historical clothing 19th-century fashion 20th-century fashion 21st-century fashion History of clothing (Western fashion) History of fashion Lingerie Skirts Woven fabrics Women's clothing