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- subject matching 'Fashion Plates: Undergarments - Crinolines'
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Originally a term for a textile made of horsehair (1829) used for making stiff under-petticoats to support and expand the skirt, but it soon became used for the petticoat itself. The lighter and less restrictive artificial crinoline or cage crinoline petticoat appeared in 1856 with whalebone hoops, and watch-spring hoops from 1857. In 1857-59 it was domed, then pyramidal, and at its widest 1859-61. From 1865 the front became flat, before merging into the crinolette (a small cage-crinoline hooped behind) by 1868. The crinolines worn in Britain were often not as extreme as those portrayed in French fashion plates.

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