Crinoline：Make Your Princess Dream Comes True
My childhood was fulfilled with Disney princess movies. I believe most of the girls, including me, are somewhat enchanted by the gorgeous dresses those princesses wear in the films. However, do you know the secret of those dresses? Under the charm of the magnificent peplum, there is a structured petticoat called crinoline designed to hold out a woman’s skirt, popular at various times since the mid-19th century.
The word, crinoline, originates from Italian, which means stiff fabric weaved along with horsehair as well as a wrap of cotton or linen thread. This fabric was introduced to fashion in the 1830s. It was initially used in the petticoat of the women to support and give shape to the increased length and diameter of early Victorian dresses.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the ideal feminine figure was an hourglass above a broad base of full skirts. Crinoline not only inherited the curves and decorations of the Baroque and Rococo but also enabled wearers to look more gorgeous, highlighting the slender waist and full breasts of women. In other words, Wide skirts, made the waist look smaller and were thought to give women dignity and grace. Therefore, in order to achieve women’s desired figure, the support of the skirt and corset is indispensable.
There are many typical examples of crinoline dresses in films and television, such as Sissi(1955), Gone with the Wind(1939) and Camille(1936).
Gone with the Wind(1939)
Sissi(1955)
Shedding the fascinating shell of the fairy tale, the stark reality of this fashion is unveiled. Although the Crinoline dress is exquisite and flamboyant, what is behind the beauty is the sacrifice of freedom and comfort mentally and physically.
In the late Neo-Rococo period, many upper-class and middle-class women, in order to emphasize their husbands' status, made their skirts larger and larger. At that time, the decorative function of the dress outweighed its intrinsic function. The dress code gradually become a powerful tool to show off their social status to others (the larger the skirt, the more gorgeous it was, showing that they did not have to work and had servants to serve them). Thus, this gorgeous big skirt became the "murder weapon".
The huge skirt brace made many women drown in windy weather when they traveled, and if they were not careful, they would be blown into the sea with their skirts and drowned; when they were walking on the road, their skirts would be caught under the carriage and dragged to death; when they were chatting by the fireplace in the house, their skirts would be set on fire and killed. At that time, every week the newspapers reported 2-3 cases of deaths due to improper use of skirt braces.
In addition to the huge hemline to bring a threat to the life of women, so that women's bodies look bumpy corset also caused harm to women's health. As a result of long-term confinement in the corset, the light will lead to the chest, abdominal blood flow is blocked, the body deformation; heavy sexual muscles, liver is detrimentally damaged, resulting in a variety of diseases in the body and shorter life expectancy.
The position and consciousness of women began to awaken as a result of the changing social structure and the necessity for industrial and economic development, and many individuals began to criticize the crinoline fashion. Consequently, this fairy tale-like fashion was finalized in 1870s.
Although those gorgeous and magnificent dresses still fascinate me sometimes when I’m watching movies and television, I felicitate that I was born in the era of freedom of dressing. With the advancement of society and technology, employment rate of female workers considerably increase. As a result, this flamboyant costume with restrained confinement, will become more like a splendid cage, doomed to fade away. The growth of all types of clothing is inextricably linked to the evolution of production and social structure; modern people are ecstatic, not only to be able to wear light and simple clothes, but also to have the freedom to choose "what to wear."
It is our right to choose "what to wear", for both women and men.
#Rococo #Baroque #art #fashion #history #Crinoline #Freedom
Reference:
https://www.macleans.ca/culture/arts/deadly-victorian-fashions/