Hoop Dreams: The Rise and Fall of the Crinoline in Second Empire France

Document Type

Article

Journal Title

Catwalk: The Journal of Fashion, Beauty and Style

Publication Date

Spring 2016

Abstract

Crinoline, while originally referring to a stiff linen cloth woven with horsehair and used for petticoats in the 1830s, ultimately became associated with the caged or hooped underskirt frames which became increasingly popular in the course of the 1850s. The crinoline style, while often regarded as an aberrant frivolity of women’s fashion of the mid-nineteenth century, nonetheless evoked a surprisingly controversial and ideologically varied amount of commentary during the period. This article examines the history of the crinoline in Second Empire France and considers its significance as a social, political, and cultural phenomenon. First, this article considers the social and industrial context within which the crinoline skirt’s meteoric and tremendous popularity developed, namely the cultural and economic transformation of France under the reign of Louis-Napoléon and Eugénie. Next, it examines the history of the crinoline in relation to gender politics during this period as associated with the Empress Eugénie who was instrumental in its popularization in the 1850s as the latest in Parisian fashion. By examining a variety of historical documents and literary works, this article demonstrates how the hotly debated arguments for and against the crinoline not only constitute a fundamental critique of the Second Empire and the political power that Eugénie had attained in it, but also a generalized cultural narrative that expresses the ambient anxiety of a society being transformed by industrialization and modernization

Comments

NOTE: The attached link will retrieve the complete issue.  Prof. Koos' article begins on page 1.  

Publisher Statement

This article appears freely on the web.  

Past issues of this journal can be found online at: https://inter-connexions.net/catwalk/. 

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