1860–1870
In the 1860s bodices were generally short, ending at the natural waistline or slightly higher. The wide crinoline skirts subtly evolved with more fabric being pushed to the back. The front waist of skirts was flatter with excess fabric either being folded into large pleats or cut away, creating an A-line shaped front panel. The panels in the back of skirts were also shaped but remained very full, and tightly gathered or pleated at the waist, often with several pleats placed on top of each other. Skirts fell straight to the hem at the front but the back extended out giving longer panels at the back. Hem circumferences remained very wide (see figure 3. 49).
Throughout the 1860s corsets remained curvaceous with the bust rounded and full (see figure 3. 47). Defining the waist was still important for corsets but total hip control was not needed. The hip sections of corsets were shortened at the sides, but remained long at the centre front and centre back with a flat metal busk with hooks and studs at the front, and tight lacing at the back. A small tightly laced waist and control around the top of the hips formed a good foundation around which the waistbands of the full skirts, or waist tapes inside bodices, could be secured.
Steel cage crinolines were still large but their shape changed. The increased amount of fabric in the back of skirts needed additional support and in the 1860s crinolines became oval (see figure 3. 48). They were flatter at the front and sides, and pushed out at the back. They sometimes acquired additional steels below the waist at the back, heralding the introduction of the bustle petticoat.
Patterns for the shorter bodices, which ended at the waist, were quite simple. All that was needed to create a close fit was a front panel with two waist darts, a back panel and a side back panel joined with a curved seam. The difference with bodice patterns from the 1830s was the introduction of a curved centre front seam that gave additional shape over the bust.
Figure 3. 45 English Women’s Domestic Magazine 1862 fashion plate showing an increased amount of fabric in the back of skirts. Image courtesy of the Manley Family Archive.
Figure 3. 46 Silk dress c. 1860–64 with a tightly fitted bodice and very full skirt. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Miss Irene Lewisohn, 1937.
Figure 3. 47 Ivory silk corset 1860–63 with well-defined waist and shorter hips at the sides. © Museum of London.
Figure 3. 48 Cage crinoline England c. 1865, showing a very wide crinoline, with a flattened front and pushed out over the hips at the back. Spring steel woven wool, linen, lined cottonbraid-covered steel, cotton twill and plain-weave double-cloth tape, cane and metal. © Museum Associates/LACMA.
Figure 3. 49 Grey taffeta and purple silk satin day dress, c. 1866– 69 showing the large crinoline skirt sweeping towards the back © Fashion Museum Bath.
Figure 3. 50 Pattern diagram for the shorter bodice seen in the 1860s with less exaggerate darts and seams needed to control the fit and the introduction of a shaped centre front seam. © Author.
1870–1890
Great care must be taken when analysing female garments in the twenty-year period beginning in 1870 and ending in 1890, as the fashionable silhouette underwent many changes during these decades. This period saw the arrival, the decline and the resurrection of the ‘bustle’.
1870–1880
In 1870 the fashion for wide, voluminous skirts was over. Skirts were flatter at the front with the fabric from the sides draped upwards and towards the back (see figure 3. 51). Tapes were often stitched to seams inside skirts to control and shape this fullness; this was the introduction of the bustle. In the early 1870s bodices remained quite short but by the middle of the decade they had extended to the hips.
Corsets were short at the beginning of the 1870s, extending over the ‘top hips’ only with a less exaggerated ‘V’ at the centre front and a gentler curve over the hips at the back (see figure 3. 54). They increased in length as bodices lengthened towards the end of the decade. In the mid-1870s a new type of busk appeared in the front of corsets, the ‘spoon busk’ (see figure 3. 55). Its name was derived from its shape; the bottom section curving over the abdomen was shaped like a spoon. It continued to be worn into the 1880s. In the early 1870s to enhance the fashionable skirt profile, and better support the increased fabric at the back of skirts, smaller cage petticoats, referred to as ‘crinolettes’ or ‘half hoops’, were introduced. These were petticoats with hoops at the sides and back only (see figure 3. 53). Tapes were attached inside to the sides of ‘crinolettes’ and tied across the back to control the width and height of the bustle.
In the mid-1870s patterns for bodices extended over the abdomen at the front often with a peplum effect over the bustle at the back. A tight fit through the waist was achieved by using shaped panels and by curving the centre front and centre back seams out over the bust and back shoulders. Imaginative combinations of vertical and sometimes horizontal darts were also introduced (see figure 3. 56).
Figure 3. 51 Fashion plate from 1870 showing skirts swept upwards and backwards over the hips. © The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, England.
Figure 3. 52 Dress c. 1875 showing the style seen in the 1870s fashion plate. © The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, England.
Figure 3. 53 The large cage petticoat reduces to a half hoop from the sides and around the back only. Cotton and wire crinolette, stamped Thompson’s crinolette No. 21, 1870s. © Fashion Museum Bath.
Figure 3. 54 Close-up of a white twill cotton, whalebone corset from 1870–75 showing the clearly defined waist and top hip. © Fashion Museum Bath.
Figure 3. 55 Lilac sateen-weave cotton, whalebone and steel corset, c. 1880–85 with the new spoon busk curved over the abdomen. © Fashion Museum Bath.
Figure 3. 56 The pattern diagram shows the complex seams and darts used to create a tightly fitting bodice in the early 1870s. Both vertical and horizontal darts were included to give a smooth fit through the waist. © Author.