Editing Crinoline (section)

{{short description|Petticoat designed to hold out a skirt}}
{{redirect|Crin||Crin (disambiguation)}}
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| image1 = Princess Dagmar of Denmark with her dog.jpg
| caption1 = [[Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark)|Princess Dagmar of Denmark]] wearing a crinoline in the 1860s
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| image2 = Crinoline, 1860-1870. MoMu - Fashion Museum Province of Antwerp, www.momu.be. Photo by Hugo Maertens, Bruges.jpg
| caption2 = Cage crinoline underskirt, 1860s, [[ModeMuseum Provincie Antwerpen|ModeMuseum, Antwerp]]
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A '''crinoline''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|r|ɪ|n|.|əl|.|ɪ|n}} is a stiff or structured [[petticoat]] designed to hold out a skirt, popular at various times since the mid-19th century. Originally, crinoline described a stiff fabric made of [[horsehair]] ("'''crin'''") and [[cotton]] or [[linen]] which was used to make underskirts and as a dress lining. The term crin or crinoline continues to be applied to a nylon stiffening tape used for interfacing and lining hemlines in the 21st century.

By the [[1850s in Western fashion|1850s]] the term crinoline was more usually applied to the fashionable silhouette provided by horsehair petticoats, and to the [[hoop skirt]]s that replaced them in the mid-1850s. In form and function these hoop skirts were similar to the 16th- and 17th-century [[farthingale]] and to 18th-century [[pannier (clothing)|panniers]], in that they too enabled skirts to spread even wider and more fully.

The steel-hooped '''cage crinoline''', first patented in April 1856 by R.C. Milliet in Paris, and by their agent in Britain a few months later, became extremely popular. Steel cage crinolines were mass-produced in huge quantity, with factories across the Western world producing tens of thousands in a year. Alternative materials, such as [[whalebone]], cane, [[gutta-percha]], and even inflatable [[Natural rubber|caoutchouc]] (natural rubber) were all used for hoops, although steel was the most popular. At its widest point, the crinoline could reach a circumference of up to six yards, although by the late 1860s, crinolines were beginning to reduce in size. By the early 1870s, the smaller '''crinolette''' and the [[bustle]] had largely replaced the crinoline.

The crinoline silhouette was revived several times in the 20th century, particularly in the late 1940s as a result of [[Christian Dior]]'s "New Look" of 1947. The flounced nylon and net petticoats worn in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s to poof out skirts also became known as crinolines even when there were no hoops in their construction. In the mid-1980s [[Vivienne Westwood]] designed the mini-crini, a [[miniskirt|mini]]-length crinoline which was highly influential on [[1980s in fashion|1980s fashion]]. Late 20th and early 21st century designers such as [[John Galliano]] and [[Alexander McQueen]] have become famous for their updated crinoline designs. Since the 1980s and well into the 21st century the crinoline has remained a popular option for formal evening dresses, wedding dresses, and [[ball gown]]s.