1880s fashion in Western and Western-influenced countries is characterized by the return of the bustle. The long, lean line of the late 1870s was replaced by a full, curvy silhouette with gradually widening shoulders. Fashionable waists were low and tiny below a full, low bust supported by a corset. The Rational Dress Society was founded in 1881 in reaction to the extremes of fashionable corsetry.
Paris fashion, 1883–1885
The fashionable corseted figure of 1883. Hair is swept up to the top of the head, and the front hair is frizzled over the forehead.
Princess-line walking dress (left) and hunting costume (right) from La Mode Illustrée, 1880.
Summer dresses of 1882 show Aesthetic influence in the small-scale floral prints. The straw hat frames the fashionable frizzled hair.
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.
Bustle, lady's undergarment, England, c. 1885. Los Angeles County Museum of Art M.2007.211.399
English bustle supports worn as undergarments, from 1875 to 1885.
Woman wearing a dress with a bustle, USA, about mid. 1880s
Bustle dress from 1870
