Wool Crepe, Printed Cotton, Nylon Lace (Photos by Joshua Purvis)
Worn over a canvas cage bustle, tournure pad, and a ruffle-back petticoat. Inspired by a pattern in Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 2 of an ensemble made by “Mrs. White, Athol House, Shepherd’s Lane, Brixton” and held in the collections of the Victorian and Albert Museum, UK, and an ensemble of roughly the same design of unknown origin held in the collections of the McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
An illustration by Janet Arnold for her book Patterns of Fashion 2.
An ensemble of roughly the same design of unknown origin held in the collections of the McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I assisted in its mounting for the museum’s special exhibition Fish Forks and Fine Furnishings: Consumer Culture in the Gilded Age, which ran from May 26 to August 27, 2017.
The McClung Museum example on a table in preparation for measurement and mounting.
The interior of the McClung Museum bodice open showing the boning stitched over the seams and the internal waist tape. The waist tape takes the strain off of the closures while the boning keeps the bodice smooth. The hooks stitched to the waist tape area later addition.
The skirts of the mid to late 1880s required support in the form of a bustle. The cage bustle was a common style.
Bustles came in many styles and were used for many kinds of dresses and activities.
