Crinoline

Crinoline, the name originally given by the French modistes to a fabric of horse-hair (Fr. crin, 'hair'), capable of great stiffness, and employed to distend women's attire. It was applied in a general way to those structures of steel wire or hoops, by means of which women between 1855 and 1866 attained enormous dimensions—12, even 15 feet in circumference. Such fashion of expansion was not new. There was the fardingale of Queen Elizabeth, when the upper part of the body was encased in a cuirass of whalebone, which was united at the waist with the equally stiff fardingale of the same material, descending to the feet in the form of a great drum. We next hear in 1711 of 'that startling novelty the hoop petticoat,' which differed from the fardingale in being gathered at the waist; and by 1744 hoops had grown so extravagant, that a woman occupied the space of six men. An elongated oval form also came into fashion, raised at each side to show the high-heeled shoes. In 1780 we find hoops of cane advertised to 'outwear the best sort of whalebone.' About 1796 hoops had been discarded in private life, but were still the mode at court until, in the time of George IV., they were abolished by royal command.