Omaha daily bee., 1893-05-28
HOOP SKIRTS IN HISTORY
Course Of the 0rinoline Traced Through the
Suffering Centuries.
PECULIAR VIRTUE IN A vERTueADN
At the Court of Famous Francis tho First
of France It Made Its Debut-ward
McAliister Approves the Mon
strosity as Modest.

wrote deluded mortal when the hoopskirt
had made one of its periodical disappear
ances to recuperate for future activities.
IL was in 1880, in the reign of Francis of
France, that the ancestor of the hoopskirt
made its debut in the world of female
dress, under tho name of vertugadin.
IL came. it saw, it conquered; for it re-
mained for 800 years, with various intermis
sions, aud its return may be expected at any
moment Never has any institution had
such treless and active opponents. Kings
have made laws against it (; priests have ex-
erted their eloquence and authority
against it; satirists have exhausted
their powers of ridicule in hold
mig it up to reprobation; carica-
turists have used their talent unsparingly to
produce its downfall, all without avail, for
the hoopskirt grew and tlourished. Charles
TX, Henri Ill. and Henry ". all issued
edicts against the hoop, and it still lived.
Later in England, also, laws were made to
restrict it's size.
From Franco the vertugadin travelled to
England and found immense favor with cher
termagant majesty, "the razor-tongued Eliza
beth,who was remarkable for her vast farth
ingale (the English name), which descended
to her feet like great drum. The vertuga-
din also invaded Spain and found itself well
coined by demure senoritas and grim
duennas. The men, as usual, decried it, and
more edits followed, out again to no pur-
pose.
Crinolines, Panniers and BustIes,
And who can explain the popularity of this
monstrousninvention. which has been des-
cribed throughout the years of its existence
by tho most derogatory adjectives IN the
languogei 1t is not useful nor graceful, nor
pretty, nor in any way calculated to set off
feminine charms. The chief beauty of
woman's figure is in the harmony and Just
proportion of its parts. This, the hoop
skirt by its size at once destroys, and renders
the head, that masterpiece of the human
body, insignificant and mean. Not only the
head but the whole upper part of the body
Is dwarfeu.
Pannicrs, also very popular in times past,
are mere modification of the hoopskirt,
and the same is true of the little wire cages
called bustles which have been gone only
few years. Compare pictures of the women
of earlier days-the Gallo Roman period of
France, for instance-with those of late
dates during the First and Second empires
and observe the difference. The most un-
educated eye will be struck with the elegant
simplicity and beautiful undulating folds of
the former while the latter, now that time
has relegated them TO the background,
appear like some absurd and ridiculous Carl
cature. The Capetian costumes in the
admirable from an aesthetic point
of view. In fact, until dis
tended petticoats, vertugadins, farthingales
and hoopskirts entered the domain of
woman's attire, there is no period which
does not show some beauty or other in the
prevailing mode of dress; and wherever it
approximated toward a Greek model, as
those of the Gallo Roman and Capetan cos
tunes do, there is q costume worthy of
praise.
Fancy the Venus of Melos in marble
farthingale or the Apollo Belvidere in pair
of trunk hose!
Men in Bran Stuffed Trunks.
The dear "1ords of creation used to be
just as uncomfortable and look just as ridic-
ulous in their trunk hose as the women in
their farthingales. An author of the time
in describing them. calls them kind of
''perdingale breeches," ana goes on to
relate the story of gallant who
having torn his garment on nail, in max
ing u bow to some ladies lost from 1t n great
quantity of the bran with which it had been
stuffed.
France having given the farthingale to
England, the latter generously returned the
compliment by giving it back in it's changed
form as the parnnier. In 1796. at the court
of George Ill, it was seen i'll its worst
phase. Besides being spread out by the
crinoline, the gown was loaded with ribbons,
cords ana tassels. During the empire wo-
men occupied three or four times the space
of men. In 1870, when it again conquered
Paris, it measured six feet in diameter, and
in 1855 its circumference was fully fifteen
feet.
Yet how many famous and beautiful
women have worn it or it's prototype, the
wide-skirted gowns, held out by numberless
petticoats worn beneath. Mary of Bur-
gundy wife to Maximilian of Austria; Eliza
beth of York, wife of Henry VII the Rich
mond who killed the third Richard of
cursed memory; Anne Bullen, whose ambi-
tion cost her so dear; Mary Tudor, daughter
of Catherine of ArrIgon; Elizabeth, Mary
de Medicis; Christine of Sweden, Marie
Josephine, que en- of Poland; Helen Four
ment, second wife of Rubens, and many
Others whose Portraits have been painted by
Holbein, Rubens, Abraham Bruyn, Joseph
Hamman and others. Hogarth in his "Mar-
riage a-la-MOde,'' 1745, has depicted the
"hoop petticoat" with his facile, satric
touch
Virtues of the vertugadin.
Yet there is really some good to be re-
corded of them. Marguerite de Valvis saved
her husband, Henry of Nauarre, from his
enemies by hiding him beneath her enor-
nous vertugadin. In the same manner
Louise de Montaynard, wife of Francois
de Tressau, saved the life of her
cousin, the brave Due de Montmorency.
One OF its apologists says that it culti-
Yates womanly reserve 'by keeping men at
n distance" and nowcomes Ward McAllister
and calls ii modest dress; it conceals the
figure and thus ceases to shock the delicacy
OF 'elderly persons"
When sumptuary edicts were in force
against the offending vertugadin, a certain
widow was arrested for wearing a hoop of
seditious size,n but was acquitted on declar-
ing that it was her hips that were to blame,
being SO very large. Shakespeare mentions
the farthIngaIe as il it were a common arti-
Gle of attire. That masterpiece of rougery,
Sir Sohn Falstaff, ilattering Mrs. Ford, who
outwitted him so cleveriy, says: Thou
wouldst make an absolute courtier, and the
firm fixture of thy foot would
give an excellent motion to thy
gait in semi-circled farthingale.n -
In 1.-TWO Gentlemen of Verona the never
to-be-forgotten Launce chides his talented
dog, Crab, because the latter did not show
sufficient respect for the lady's farthipgale
And so, in the long history, the hoop-skirt
has always triumphed. In spite of wars and
rumors of wars, it held its own serene and
circular sway. And il, as is threatened it
is once more to come among us, there is moth
ing to do but TO become reconciled and hope
that It's reign will be short
Some women, many IN fact, will VOW that
they will never wear it. This Is a commenda-
bic resolution, but lust give the hoop skirt a
fair show and it will como out victor. AS
Patrick Henry says: "There is no way of
judging the future but by the past" and so
judging, we can easily approximate the re-
suit, for human nature is the same the world
over. r. ~ M r. l..
PECULIAR CASE.