Corsets, Crinolines, and Bustles: (Re)shaping Fashionable Women's Silhouettes in the 19th Century

Illustrated by extant garments from the Seward House Museum and the Cornell Costume & Textile Collection, this lecture by Professor Denise Green of Cornell University will chronicle changes in women's fashion and beauty standards during the 19th Century.  The "ideal" female body changed dramatically between 1800 - 1900: from the empire waist and unbounded silhouette of the first two decades, to increasing corsetry and petticoats and eventually large hooped skirts and crinolines of the mid-century, to the bustles of the 1870s and 1880s, and culminating with extreme corsetry in the last decade of the century.  At the same time, first wave feminists of the late 19th century began advocating for dress reform and what they termed "rational dress."  This illustrated lecture will explore the social, cultural, and economic forces that influenced American women's fashion and how dress reformers attempted to intervene in the late 19th century.

Professor Green is the Director of the Cornell Costume & Textile Collection. She is also a faculty member in American Indian and Indigenous Studies and Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies as well as a graduate field member in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell.

Admission: Members FREE, General Public $5
Reservations Required