Textiles and Dress

Bustle

A bustle is a padded undergarment or wire frame used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. Heavy fabric tended to pull the back of a skirt down and flatten it. As a result, a woman's petticoated skirt would lose its shape during everyday wear (from merely sitting down or moving about).

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See also

• ▸Back closure
• ▸Chimney Rock National Monument
• ▸King's Hall, Herne Bay

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.