Crinoline
A crinoline is a stiff or structured petticoat designed to hold out a skirt, popular at various times since the mid-19th century. Originally, crinoline described a stiff fabric made of horsehair 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 term crinoline was more usually applied to the fashionable silhouette provided by horsehair petticoats, and to the hoop skirts 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, 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, cane, gutta-percha, and even inflatable caoutchouc 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 had largely replaced the crinoline.
The crinoline silhouette was revived several times in the 20th century, particularly in the late 1940s as a result of Christian Dior's "New Look" of 1947. The flounced nylon and net petticoats worn in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s 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-length crinoline which was highly influential on 1980s fashion. Late 20th and early 21st century designers such as John Galliano and Alexander McQueen 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 crinis and/or the French word crin ; with the Latin word linum, describing the materials used in the original textile.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 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 verdugada, 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.
The horsehair fabric called crinoline was first noted by 1829, when it was offered for lining and dress-making. That year, Rudolph Ackermann's Repository of Fashions described the new textile as a "fine clear stuff, not unlike in appearance to leno, but of a very strong and durable description: it is made in different colours; grey, and the colour of unbleached cambric 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. One alternative to horsehair crinoline was the quilted petticoat stuffed with down or feathers, such as that reportedly worn in 1842 by Lady Aylesbury. 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. The artificial crinoline with hoops did not emerge until the 1850s.
Late 19th century
1850s–60s
The cage crinoline made out of spring steel wire was first introduced in the 1850s, with the earliest British patent for a metal crinoline granted in July 1856. Alison Gernsheim suggests that the unidentified French inventor was probably Angélique Caroline Milliet of Besançon, as the July 1856 patent was filed by her British agent, C. Amet. Milliet had already patented a 'tournure de femme' 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 felt that her concerns about the hampering nature of multiple petticoats had been resolved, and dropped dress reform as an issue. Diana de Marly, in her biography of the couturier Charles Frederick Worth, 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. 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, gutta-percha, and vulcanised caoutchouc. 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 photo-historian Alison Gernsheim concluded that the maximum realistic circumference was in fact between. Whilst a loosely gathered skirt draped over a large hoop would certainly require a higher yardage, Gernsheim noted that hems were highly improbable. 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. 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.