As wide cage crinolines became less practical, skirt supports narrowed and flattened in front while keeping volume toward the back. A “crinolette” (half-crinoline) used rear hoops to support gathered fabric and helped transition fashion toward the bustle silhouette.
By the early 1870s, the bustle developed into a separate item worn at the waist to project the back of the skirt. It could be padded or supported with materials like steel, mesh, or horsehair, shaping the new fashionable silhouette after the decline of the crinoline.
In the early-to-mid 1870s, dresses emphasized fullness high at the back through draping and support garments, with elaborate trimming to draw attention to the rear of the skirt. This “first bustle” phase was widely worn in Europe and the United States and helped define the decade’s fashionable outline.
By the mid-1870s, skirts became narrower overall and the most noticeable puff of volume tended to sit lower. Trains and back drapery became a major focus, supported by longer “waterfall” or tubular bustles that helped carry fabric behind the wearer.
Around 1875, fashion magazines promoted the “cuirass” bodice: a long, closely fitted, boned bodice that extended over the hips. This helped create a straighter, more vertical silhouette even while skirts still relied on back support and trains.
As the decade progressed, bustles shrank and “all but vanished” around 1878 in many fashion centers. The look shifted toward smoother lines over the hips, with interest moving to long, trained skirts rather than a pronounced projection at the waist.
The princess line dress—cut in long panels without a waist seam—became especially popular in the late 1870s and early 1880s. It reinforced the era’s move toward a close, continuous line from shoulder to hem, often paired with a trained back rather than a big bustle.
Dress reform debates sharpened as some critics linked heavy skirts, tight corsets, and rigid understructures to discomfort and limited movement. In 1881, London’s Rational Dress Society organized to oppose fashions it argued deformed the figure or hindered health and mobility.
After a brief break, the bustle reappeared in France around the beginning of the 1880s, then regained strong popularity in Britain by about 1883. The revived form tended to be more exaggerated and angular than earlier 1870s styles, often using steel supports.
By the mid-1880s, some bustles extended backward like a shelf, with wire cages or structured supports holding the skirt at a sharp angle. Makers even designed certain wire bustles to collapse when sitting and spring back when standing, reflecting the engineering involved in fashion.
In the late 1880s, the sharply bustled outline began to look old-fashioned. Clothing shifted toward simpler shaping, often using only a small pad inside the skirt rather than a large external support structure.
By the 1890s, skirts were more A-line—falling from the waist with fewer structural supports—reflecting growing interest in comfort and movement. While stiff petticoats and heavier fabrics still shaped the outline, the bustle era’s dramatic back projection had largely ended.
The bustle era: late 19th-century skirts and support garments (c. 1870–1895)