Saturday 9 August 2014

Women in Cages

Steel Cage Crinoline 1860s


Whenever I mention that I write Victorian crime fiction, people always comment upon the infamous crinoline. Why on EARTH would women put up such a monstrosity? Well, they did, and surprisingly, with great relish. The crinoline, or hooped skirt was actually based on a design from the 1840s. In 1856, the American W.S.Thomson patented the metal cage crinoline and it became a huge hit in the USA, France and Britain. It was the first fashion to encompass all classes - rich or poor, you could still afford to wear it.

Although we find it hard to believe, women really loved the cage crinoline. At the height of its popularity, enough steel was produced in Sheffield to make half a million hoops in one week. It freed women from the constricting 2 petticoats (one flannel, one cotton) they wore and gave them more ability to move their legs. And it was easy to hoick it up at the back when you needed to go to the privy.

1850s crinoline
Crinolines came in a variety of shapes, but they were not especially expensive, retailing at a third of the price of a dress. And if you were a skillful needlewoman - as most young women were in those days, it was easy to transform the style of an existing dress by the addition of a cage.

Spring steel shapes crinolines were light and flexible, and could be pressed out of shape temporarily, a useful attribute when trying to sit down, or get in and out of carriages and buses. Together with the tightly-laced corset, which emphasized a woman's tiny waist, the crinoline gave the wearer a very ''sexy'' shape. This was enhanced by the way women had to walk: placing the foot outwards and describing a semi-circle, which gave a swaying motion to the hips. It was almost impossible to go at speed, so the slow, swaying gait was considered very alluring.

And as you can see from the picture at the top, cages and stays came in very nice colours. In Diamonds & Dust, Josephine King and her fashion mentor Isabella Thorpe visit a big department store, where they are informed by one of the female assistants that: ''We have some delightful articles in scarlet, Mademoiselle ... Zey came in last week, fresh from Par-ee.''   Maybe she was referring to something like this.

However brightly colored and popular, cage crinolines were not all good news however. Sitting down had to be re-learned, and getting through narrow doors or down narrow passageways was a nightmare. And the there was the ever present danger of high winds, which could leave you scrambling to hold your skirt down lest (oh horror!) your drawers were exposed to male passersby. Add to this the danger from open fires and gas lamps and wearing the crinoline could have fatal consequences!


Two fashionable ladies
And however attractive it made you, wearing a crinoline didn't make courtship any easier than it already wasn't. In November 1856, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine published a poem called 'Crinoliniana' which ended:

I long to clasp thee to my heart
  But all my longings are in vain;
I sit and sigh two yards apart,
   And curse the barriers of thy train.
My fondest hopes I must resign,
   I can't get past that Crinoline!


The crinoline seems a ridiculous item of fashion to us today, but for the Victorians, with their sense of propriety, it was the perfect device to distance a woman, physically and psychologically from her surroundings, from the real world and to preserve her femininity and chastity for her husband. In a sense, it was the real-life equivalent of placing herself upon a pedestal.

If you'd like to download a free sample of Diamonds & Dust, A Victorian Murder Mystery, you can do so by clicking HERE. US readers can do so by clicking HERE.

14 comments:

  1. I remember the day of my daughters First Holy Communion as she awaited her turn to approach the priest for her blessing. She looked beautiful in the crisp white silk dress, complete with a modest sized crinoline cage, which her happy little shape wore with pride....until she knelt down on the pew, catching the front of the cage causing the back to shoot up like a cat flap, exposing her derriere to the congregation!...

    To this day the family still laugh about it....not so much my daughter!.....

    ......Interesting piece Hedges...maybe you should start a revival!...

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  2. Really interesting post, Carol. I knew nothing about crinolines before. Thanks!

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    1. welcome. as I said, people get the wrong idea...

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  3. I managed to trap myself to the door handle with my oversized shirt worn over leggings - I'm definitely not a candidate for crinolines!
    Great post as ever Mrs H - always getting us thinking ;) x

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    1. thanks hon. Not sure I'd have worn one..but then I recal my mum wore a corset and longline bra ..in the 1960's... plus ca change

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  4. Oh my, I am amazed. Half a million crinolines cages from Sheffield steel in one week! What a fascinating post, CarolStar. I can only try to imagination both the liberation and restriction of wearing such a thing, and I love Lynn's story here about her daughter's first communion. Training obviously needed! Lovely post! I so enjoy these stories from history!

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  5. Great article - useful to know for my own research :)

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  6. A great informative and entertaining post, Carol. It's fascinating to look at past fashions and see what women suffered in the name of beauty - although crinolines are a long way from the worst. That swaying walk sounds hysterical from today's point of view - no rushing in to shops when the doors open for the sales, then? A brilliant read.

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  7. Oh the terrible things women have been made to wear over the centuries - mostly to feed the fantasies of men! I remember roll-on girdles ...

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    1. I waatched one of those Gok Wan progs...where some woman was encased like a sausage in undergarments designed to keep her in in places or push her out in places. Not much difference.

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  8. How interesting Carol. I love those dresses but the bottoms must have been worn and dirty with trailing on the ground. I suppose the rich had their doorways widened to accommodate them. Watching Big Fat Gypsy Wedding the girls can hardly get down the aisle with their huge dresses or sit in a car for that matter.

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    1. I know ...mind in Victorian times, they didn't ''romp'' so much.

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  9. Wonderful post Carol. I only knew some of the facts. My mum did dressmaking and has a fascination with the history of women's clothing, which has rubbed off on me. I wore a crinoline when I married. You do have to effect a strange walk and going to the toilet required some assistance! But it meant I could pad about barefoot in the evening after all day in heels, hahaha!

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    1. I've never worn one...I'd love to try it. What always amazes me is how fashion repeats..there are a lot of people STILL trying to reduce their waists by tight lacing...despite all the health issues it brought our ancestors

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