Baby Got Bustle: a Treatise on Victorian Booty
A while ago, I promised (threatened? was coerced?) to write a post on my knowledge of bustles.
Which, after much to-do, I did. Here's what I know about bustles.
Definition and History
First, a definition, brought to you by Wikipedia: "A bustle is a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman's dress, occurring predominantly in the mid-to-late 19th century." I'll make the clarification that a bustle is often its own separate undergarment, worn underneath the skirt, rather than part of the skirt itself.
That "mid-to-late 19th century" is an important point. The kind of tokenism you find in steampunk paints bustles as the defining feature of Victorian fashion, but let's not forget that Victoria reigned from 1837-1901, and that covered a lot of ground in fashion--from full skirts back to slim skirts again, with bustles being, quite literally, the bump in the middle. In fact, the Victorians liked the bustle enough to bring it into fashion twice. Roughly speaking those periods were 1869-1877 ("early bustle"), and the 1883-1889 ("late bustle" or "bustle revival"). These are, of course, estimates. For people from lower social strata, or in more rural areas, the bustle probably didn't go out of fashion until the turn of the century.
This is an American lady from the 1890s. She's a few years out of fashion. But it's okay--we still love you, cross-eyed American lady.
Early bustle and late bustle fashions are not exactly the same. Early bustle evolved directly from the crinoline, the undergarment that supports the hoop skirt of the mid-19th century. Thus early bustle designs tend to have more fullness in the front than you would see in a later period - it looks like what you'd get if you gradually tipped a crinoline towards the back, which is basically what happened. Between the two bustle periods, the silhouette slimmed down quite a bit, and so late bustle fashions tend to be more flat-fronted, relative to a particularly robust bustle.
On the left, early bustle (1870, Philadelphia Museum). On the right, late bustle (1883, from the Museum of London). FIGHT! Compare and contrast.
So! History aside, how does the modern costumer make a bustle? There are a few different ways...
Constructing a Bustle the Historically-Accurate Way
As I said, the bustle evolved from the crinoline, so the two are built much the same. How was a crinoline built? WITH STEEL GIRDERS. Or, more specifically, with concentric rings of boning, often made of steel:
This is what a bustle looks like NAKED.
If "concentric rings of boning" sounds like a Slinky to you... well, that's because it kind of is. Like a Slinky, a bustle is just rings of steel sandwiched between a softer material (fabric, in this case). Like a Slinky, the bustle collapses on itself, which makes sitting while wearing a bustle a lot easier than it might appear.
As it turns out, there are many pattern companies out there that will sell you patterns for butt-Slinkies. I am partial to Truly Victorian's TV101, Petticoat with Wire Bustle, which is designed to fit underneath many of their bustled fashions.
Laughing Moon Mercantile also makes a few interesting bustled patterns:
- Ladies Hoops and Bustles pattern, #112 provides a lovely illustration of the transition from crinoline to bustle.
- Ladies Corset Cover, Petticoat and Bustle, #102 also includes a pattern for a bustle pad, which will get you through a lot of transitional fashion periods--like the years between the two bustle periods, where the copious pleating and poufs on outerwear still needed some oomph.
(I haven't tried either of these patterns myself, but I can in general recommend LM patterns to the more experienced sewist. If you're more of a beginner, Truly Victorian may be a better place to start).
Finally the Saloon Girl, #105 is another possibility. This, you might recognize, formed the basis for my own saloon girl costume. There are no Slinkies here--the bustle effect in this garment is created by a bustle pad sewn into a sort of bag of fabric lined with crinkly netting, with tapes to scrunch up the material. So long as you don't wear it alone, this can serve as a bustled overskirt for any respectable late Victorian lady. I think this pattern is especially great for working with skirts you might have already, or achieving a generic "steampunk" look, specific to no one bustle period.
So that's the "software." The "hardware" gets a little bit more specialized. Fabric, netting, and cotton batting can be had at your local fabric store, of course, but if you choose to make a butt-Slinky, you'll probably need to invest in some steel boning. Truly Victorian sells sets of hoop boning, already tipped, appropriate for its own bustles and crinolines.
Like this
Other options: you could also use plastic boning from a local sewing store, although it might not offer you the flexibility and durability you'd get from steel boning. I've heard it recommended that you can use cable ties as a substitute for boning.
But if you get to that point of improvisation, perhaps you might consider...
I guess we'll have to improvise!
Of course, some of you would rather employ the less time- (or money-) intensive modern ways of building a bustle. As long as you achieve the right silhouette for the period, it doesn't matter what's under your skirt, right? (That's what she said). That said, a lot of the improvised solutions boil down to adding some mass at your backside, so they may not be as comfortable or as Slinky-riffic as the traditional bustle.
Recently I perused the Costumes, Accessories, and Props book by Barb Rogers, author of theInstant Period Costumes book I reviewed, and it has some suggestions for improvising a bustle. This author claims to have used a colander as a bustle, in a pinch! More realistically, she suggests adding elastic to a small pillow to secure it around your waist, or even sewing it directly into the garment, if the materials can be washed. When you do this, you're basically just making a bustle pad.
Tulle and netting are also great tools for adding mass. You don't have to buy it by the yard and build your own, however. Another technique I learned from Barb Rogers is to take the tulle/net skirt from a prom dress, split it at the center front from floor to waistline, and rearrange the fullness where you like it--at the butt, in this case.
Over and under
So remember when I said a bustle was an undergarment?
I kind of lied.
Look, a bustled effect isn't entirely the job of undergarments. For a cage bustle, you need outerwear that is designed to fit it--at the very least, a skirt that is longer in back than in front. Remember when I mentioned "pleating and poufs?" These features on period garments complete the bustle look. In both bustle periods we saw numerous cuirass or basque-style bodices, which featured long, pleated backs that draped artfully over the bustle. The skirts that sat over the bustle were often gathered in some way, too. Both the under- and overskirt of my 1880s garb, for example, have extensive pleating in back; if I wore them without a bustle, they'd still retain some of that shape.
A scenic view of my butt, wearing my 1880s garb. See the pleating in the cuirass bodice?
As always, I refer you to the truly excellent Truly Victorian in fashioning outerwear to match your unmentionables. They have an extensive selection of Early Bustle and Late Bustle patterns, all designed to fit over their own bustles.
For those of you playing the thrifting/refashioning game, once you understand the basic bustle look--which I hope you now do--it becomes much easier to re-create with found items. Trained formal dresses are probably your best bet for accommodating the extra length a cage bustle requires. Feel free to cut and rearrange the layers of the skirt into looks that you find pleasing. Pair that with a jacket with a pleated back over a white dress shirt, and you're looking very close to bustled up, buttoned up Victorian lady.
And that's all I know about the history and construction of bustles. I hope you'll use your new-found knowledge for good, not evil.
Which, after much to-do, I did. Here's what I know about bustles.
Definition and History
First, a definition, brought to you by Wikipedia: "A bustle is a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman's dress, occurring predominantly in the mid-to-late 19th century." I'll make the clarification that a bustle is often its own separate undergarment, worn underneath the skirt, rather than part of the skirt itself.
That "mid-to-late 19th century" is an important point. The kind of tokenism you find in steampunk paints bustles as the defining feature of Victorian fashion, but let's not forget that Victoria reigned from 1837-1901, and that covered a lot of ground in fashion--from full skirts back to slim skirts again, with bustles being, quite literally, the bump in the middle. In fact, the Victorians liked the bustle enough to bring it into fashion twice. Roughly speaking those periods were 1869-1877 ("early bustle"), and the 1883-1889 ("late bustle" or "bustle revival"). These are, of course, estimates. For people from lower social strata, or in more rural areas, the bustle probably didn't go out of fashion until the turn of the century.
This is an American lady from the 1890s. She's a few years out of fashion. But it's okay--we still love you, cross-eyed American lady.
Early bustle and late bustle fashions are not exactly the same. Early bustle evolved directly from the crinoline, the undergarment that supports the hoop skirt of the mid-19th century. Thus early bustle designs tend to have more fullness in the front than you would see in a later period - it looks like what you'd get if you gradually tipped a crinoline towards the back, which is basically what happened. Between the two bustle periods, the silhouette slimmed down quite a bit, and so late bustle fashions tend to be more flat-fronted, relative to a particularly robust bustle.
On the left, early bustle (1870, Philadelphia Museum). On the right, late bustle (1883, from the Museum of London). FIGHT! Compare and contrast.
So! History aside, how does the modern costumer make a bustle? There are a few different ways...
Constructing a Bustle the Historically-Accurate Way
As I said, the bustle evolved from the crinoline, so the two are built much the same. How was a crinoline built? WITH STEEL GIRDERS. Or, more specifically, with concentric rings of boning, often made of steel:
This is what a bustle looks like NAKED.
If "concentric rings of boning" sounds like a Slinky to you... well, that's because it kind of is. Like a Slinky, a bustle is just rings of steel sandwiched between a softer material (fabric, in this case). Like a Slinky, the bustle collapses on itself, which makes sitting while wearing a bustle a lot easier than it might appear.
As it turns out, there are many pattern companies out there that will sell you patterns for butt-Slinkies. I am partial to Truly Victorian's TV101, Petticoat with Wire Bustle, which is designed to fit underneath many of their bustled fashions.
Laughing Moon Mercantile also makes a few interesting bustled patterns:
- Ladies Hoops and Bustles pattern, #112 provides a lovely illustration of the transition from crinoline to bustle.
- Ladies Corset Cover, Petticoat and Bustle, #102 also includes a pattern for a bustle pad, which will get you through a lot of transitional fashion periods--like the years between the two bustle periods, where the copious pleating and poufs on outerwear still needed some oomph.
(I haven't tried either of these patterns myself, but I can in general recommend LM patterns to the more experienced sewist. If you're more of a beginner, Truly Victorian may be a better place to start).
Finally the Saloon Girl, #105 is another possibility. This, you might recognize, formed the basis for my own saloon girl costume. There are no Slinkies here--the bustle effect in this garment is created by a bustle pad sewn into a sort of bag of fabric lined with crinkly netting, with tapes to scrunch up the material. So long as you don't wear it alone, this can serve as a bustled overskirt for any respectable late Victorian lady. I think this pattern is especially great for working with skirts you might have already, or achieving a generic "steampunk" look, specific to no one bustle period.
So that's the "software." The "hardware" gets a little bit more specialized. Fabric, netting, and cotton batting can be had at your local fabric store, of course, but if you choose to make a butt-Slinky, you'll probably need to invest in some steel boning. Truly Victorian sells sets of hoop boning, already tipped, appropriate for its own bustles and crinolines.
Like this
Other options: you could also use plastic boning from a local sewing store, although it might not offer you the flexibility and durability you'd get from steel boning. I've heard it recommended that you can use cable ties as a substitute for boning.
But if you get to that point of improvisation, perhaps you might consider...
I guess we'll have to improvise!
Of course, some of you would rather employ the less time- (or money-) intensive modern ways of building a bustle. As long as you achieve the right silhouette for the period, it doesn't matter what's under your skirt, right? (That's what she said). That said, a lot of the improvised solutions boil down to adding some mass at your backside, so they may not be as comfortable or as Slinky-riffic as the traditional bustle.
Recently I perused the Costumes, Accessories, and Props book by Barb Rogers, author of theInstant Period Costumes book I reviewed, and it has some suggestions for improvising a bustle. This author claims to have used a colander as a bustle, in a pinch! More realistically, she suggests adding elastic to a small pillow to secure it around your waist, or even sewing it directly into the garment, if the materials can be washed. When you do this, you're basically just making a bustle pad.
Tulle and netting are also great tools for adding mass. You don't have to buy it by the yard and build your own, however. Another technique I learned from Barb Rogers is to take the tulle/net skirt from a prom dress, split it at the center front from floor to waistline, and rearrange the fullness where you like it--at the butt, in this case.
Over and under
So remember when I said a bustle was an undergarment?
I kind of lied.
Look, a bustled effect isn't entirely the job of undergarments. For a cage bustle, you need outerwear that is designed to fit it--at the very least, a skirt that is longer in back than in front. Remember when I mentioned "pleating and poufs?" These features on period garments complete the bustle look. In both bustle periods we saw numerous cuirass or basque-style bodices, which featured long, pleated backs that draped artfully over the bustle. The skirts that sat over the bustle were often gathered in some way, too. Both the under- and overskirt of my 1880s garb, for example, have extensive pleating in back; if I wore them without a bustle, they'd still retain some of that shape.
A scenic view of my butt, wearing my 1880s garb. See the pleating in the cuirass bodice?
As always, I refer you to the truly excellent Truly Victorian in fashioning outerwear to match your unmentionables. They have an extensive selection of Early Bustle and Late Bustle patterns, all designed to fit over their own bustles.
For those of you playing the thrifting/refashioning game, once you understand the basic bustle look--which I hope you now do--it becomes much easier to re-create with found items. Trained formal dresses are probably your best bet for accommodating the extra length a cage bustle requires. Feel free to cut and rearrange the layers of the skirt into looks that you find pleasing. Pair that with a jacket with a pleated back over a white dress shirt, and you're looking very close to bustled up, buttoned up Victorian lady.
And that's all I know about the history and construction of bustles. I hope you'll use your new-found knowledge for good, not evil.