IMPROVEMENTS IN HOOP SKIRTS AND BUSTLES
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Moritz Rosenstock at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st December 1883.
MORITZ ROSENSTOCK, of the City of New York, in the State of New York,
and United States of America IMPROVEMENTS IN HOOP SKIRTS AND BUSTLES
The object of this invention is to make a hoop skirt or bustle from a continuous
wire, thereby cheapening the construction of the said garment, and at the same
time rendering it more pliable and yielding to the form of the wearer, and more
durable, especially with regard to the stability of the fastenings of the ends of the
wires to the fabric of the stays.
A frame or stays form the attachments or body to which the wires or hoops are
secured, and are of any suitable textile fabric, made in the usual form, or in any
approved form. The wires or hoops may be either round or flat, but I prefer to
use round wires, as they can be more easily bent at the angles, and of course they
are covered, as is usual with the wires or springs of hoop skirts. The hoop or
wire is made in one continuous piece, and in forming the skirt or bustle, the first
end of the said wire is attached to one of the front stay pieces, either at the top
or bottom thereof, and secured to the said stay piece, parallel with its front edge,
for a distance equal to the vertical height of the space required to be occupied by
the wiring, then the said wire is bent around the form on which the skirt is built,
and carried over to the other front stay piece, and then bent over in an angle,
which is nearly or quite a right angle, and thence down along the said front stay
piece and parallel with its front edge for a distance equal to the required width
or space between the wires of the skirt or bustle, and then the wire is bent by
another angle, and again taken around the building form to the other front stay
piece, where it is bent into two angles as above described, and thence carried back
to the other front stay piece as before described, and so on, the wire is bent around
the building form and carried back and forth from one of the front stay pieces to
the other, until the whole skirt or bustle is completed, care being taken in the
placing of the wires to have the last end attached to the opposite front stay
piece to that upon which the work was commenced, so as to bave it bent up in
the form of a vertical stay piece, which is attached to the last finished front
stay piece, and parallel with its front edge, in the manner above described for

page_text: commencing the skirt. These two vertical stay pieces give all the extension qualities
required in the skirt or bustle, for the purpose of holding it in its proper vertical
position on the person of the wearer, while the absolute and detached freedom
of the back part of the skirt to double up, renders the garment more easy and
graceful than any hoop skirts or bustles heretofore made.
The wires are attached to the fabric stay pieces in the usual manner, by sewing
or metallic fastenings, and the angles with the intervening vertical position of the
wire at the front stay pieces, serve effectually to hold the wire and front stay
pieces securely together, and render it impossible for the ends of the wires or hoops
to become detached and puncture the stays or clothing, as the hoops now in use
frequently do.