---
node: garment_crinoline
type: garment
slug: crinoline
title: "Crinoline"
lead: "The crinoline is a cage of flexible steel hoops worn under the skirt to hold it in a wide dome. Introduced in the 1850s, it freed women from layers of heavy petticoats and defined the mid-Victorian silhouette."
published: 2026-08-09
updated: 2026-08-09
image_file: crinoline.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crinoline_fashion_1860.jpg"
image_author: "Contemporary drawing (1860), artist's name not given"
image_license: "Public domain"
---

## Overview

A crinoline is a lightweight framework of graduated steel hoops hung from tapes, worn under the skirts. It replaced the many stiffened petticoats previously needed to make a full skirt, giving greater width with far less weight.

## How it is worn

It is stepped into and tied at the waist so the skirt springs out over the cage in a smooth bell; the hoops swayed as the wearer moved and made sitting, doorways, and gusts of wind a hazard. Skirts grew ever wider until the cage reached its greatest span around 1860.

## History

The steel-cage crinoline was patented in 1856 and swept Europe and America almost at once, mass-produced in the millions. By the later 1860s the fullness moved to the back, and the crinoline gave way to the half-cage and then the bustle.