Testing A 150 Years Old Victorian Crinoline 

guys, regarding whether this belonged to a child: I thought about this, but after some consideration I think it's less likely than it just having belonged to someone really small. I've examined 1870s photographs and fashion plates of kids and teenagers and here's what I've noticed: 1) Their dresses usually end way above the ankle, around 10 cm below the knees. The crinoline would have to be a little bit shorter than that, which means it would probably reach the knee. Keeping in mind this would be a young girl of a, let's say, 150 cm (4 ft 11) height, the longest crinoline a kid/teenager could wear would have to be around 37 cm. This one is about twice as long. If I wore it, it would probably be the right length for a 14 years old - except I'm a tall-ass grown up, so for an actual 14 years old it might be way too long. 2) The photographs of girls wearing transitional crinolines (around 1870) look like they weren't super wide - and though this one is quite narrow, I still can't imagine a child running around in an almost 2 m (78 in) wide crinoline. Pic: bit.ly/2X9ulxw 3) The back curve (the bottom 3-4 hoops) to me indicates the dress worn over it would be worn with a train/longer skirt, something that is not featured in teen's clothing at the time because, well, it didn't even reach the ground. 4) Petite women were a thing. I've seen Charlotte Bronte's dress, and it looks like it was made for a 10 year old. Queen Victoria was 152 cm (4 ft 11). I've seen stuff in museums that was clearly made for grown ups, but it could barely fit a modern kid. That's also one of the reasons it survived - it was so tiny it couldn't have been worn by other members of the family. THAT BEING SAID it could have been worn by a child, it could've been worn by a teenager, it could've been worn by a small middle-aged man, we will probably never know and when it comes to fashion history, nothing is certain.

I am 152cm (5’0”) and my waist is 60cm so i feel like it might have been of someone with my same body shape ... is it possible it was from a young teenager? 😔

Maybe it was worn by a child ?

Couldnt it be a child/teen model ?

My best guess about the ghost boning is that the crinoline originally belonged to someone taller, then it was adjusted to fit another person. They removed the boning, cut away part of the vertical bands and then put in place the waistband.

I really like that desk lamp

It might have been for a teenager? Because they would wear what their parents wore but with shorter skirts and some other minor differences. So yeah maybe for a teenager?

brdesk.info/like/video/Z57GmpfSq5JjyKY

I always learn something new from u and the skirt hoop is really cool 🤗

Love ur hair. Show us how to do that:) thx have great day 😎

I saw a bustle at a steampunk fair once! I don't know anything about it though.

I want these earrings so much omg 😭😭😭

Imagine a proper redesign of a crinoline today. The hoops could be high tech ultra light weight material. The tapes with high tech closures for adjustments, strength, it’d be fabulous. Do period movie costumes use modern redesign and materials?

Imagine, women walked around in cages all day, literally!

Before marriage and 5 kids (41 years ago) , my waist was 22 inches.

I’m not sure why several people are thinking this was for a teenager or somebody tiny, but weren’t women smaller back then because they were malnourished? So the woman wearing it wouldn’t be tiny compared to other women back then, she might’ve been shorter, but I think she would’ve been quite common. Women today can still be tiny, and not because of malnourishment, like it could be genetics. I know people who have 24 inch waists and are 5 foot 1 in real life.

It's likely altered to accommodate a bum roll.

You have international audience - use international measuring system.

You have nice hairstyle on this film

could it had been used by a young lady?

I'm imagining the original owner watching this video and holding her stomach from laughing about how you're trying to figure it out

Great hair!!

Yo...I think that crinoline was made for me... that would fit me perfectly if I put on a corset...

Do you think it survived living in the wild west?

Maybe she was pregnant and removed them

're the empty channels, I recall reading in gone with the wind that when a lady was expecting she would add hoops to the top of the crinoline to conceal the bump. I think it refers to the empress of France introducing the fashion

Do you know what I just found out? I just found out that the twins named Keren Bonita Geraldo McQueen and Keziah Geraldo are the reason why I am the most hideous female in the entire cosmos? I remember in the year 2006 when I first started attending Bethel Assembly church with my family. The twins were secretly sent on a mission to outshine me and sing with angelic voices like the tagoe sisters and charm the crowd and win the crowd's attention every sunday. And little did I know the twins were secretly celebrities named Rihanna, Britney Spears, and it was my own accidental doing after listening to worldly music like pop music, rock music, hip hop music, r&b music, and listening to the song Stacy's mom by fountains of Wayne, and watching playboy pornography and adult pornography instead of reading the bible and giving my life to Christ or going to church and Fasting and Praying and Playing Christian Music. When I grew up and became an adult woman and complained about them outshining me and making me feel ugly and bad about my self image they began to secretly plot on me and steal all of my beauty, youth, growth, and blessings. And even ended up transforming my head, ears and body into something hideous and mannish. Then they switched my stomach with many pregnant women who were in labor and tried to kill my son through my father and brother. A Bible believing holy spirit filled Jehovah Witness member named Ms. Emilee Brown visited my home many times and preached to me but it turns out she was secretly my auntie named Korkor and was carrying lots of my beauty and blessings without my permission and was the reason why I looked very ugly and mannish in all my pictures. When I complained on the internet to people that she warped my self image and made me feel bad about myself someone reported me to her. Now she has stolen all my beauty and blessings and transformed my head and body to something hideous. Do you remember when I wrote that I am proud to be a female, I have breasts and a vagina, I get my menstrual period every month, and I can also give birth to children? What is my height? I am 5'3" meaning that I am feminine and easy for males to tower over, over power, and dominate. I am short when it comes to height. My favorite color is pink which is the most feminine color among all the other colors. I don't like sports and I don't watch sports channels on TV. Sports is boring and it's a masculine hobby. It takes large amounts of strength and energy and I don't have that kind of strength or energy because I am not tomboy or a man. I am a weak woman. When I said this the sports athletes changed my head and body to something hideous and masculine or mannish. Then they insulted me that I can now be very feminine again and call them tomboys or men again.

The strangest thing about this is, the waist band and length of it would fit me very well, but I don't consider myself very small. I'm 5 ft 5 (165cm) with a waist of 60 cm and about one meter from my waist to the floor.

Maybe this was a crinoline for a young girl, about 11, 12, or 13..

Meme mom looking fine af with that hairstyle.

Fashion history: ok, so, we didn't die of hypothermia. step 2, the bead. *stitching intensifies*

Could it have been a child young girls crinoline

Where do you buy all those authentic old clothes

Is it possible this was made for a young teenager?

I'm 5' 3" and have a 23 inch (60 cm) waist, so it's not inhumanly small even today. My great-grandmother was shorter than me with the same small bone frame, and her waist was tinier than mine when she was in her 80s.

your hairstyle is soooooo beautiful

A DAMN CRINOLINE!!! *I died* 😂

Crinoline had to walk so slinky's could run 😔😔😔🤣🤣🤣🤣

Maybe this crinoline was passed through a family of sisters?

Would it have been a child/young ladies crinoline?

Abe Lincoln could’ve seen someone wearing this

it could have been used by a preteen or a teenager since it is so short and the waist is so small

Maybe it is child size. I would be concerned that maybe that plyable metal boning is lead. Just a thought. Curious..

can you think that thing was *someone's* once.

Wearing one of these crinolines must have been like living inside a large Slinky toy.

The average height for a woman of that time would likely be less than 5ft tall. Queen Victoria was reportedly 5'0 tall. ( From her photographs, it appears they were generous is having her reach 5 feet.) The hands and feet of genteel women were smaller having done no work. Shoes from this period of time for women were typically 3.5 to 4.0 for women...this is average, not for the genteel. It was common in the latter part of the 19th century for engaged women of above average means, to wear matching bracelets of gold or silver on each wrist to announce her status as betrothed. These are usually very small at between 4 in to 5 inches and rings were often sized around a 3.0to 3.5 for the general population of women. All these figure are indicative of American sizing. Women then and now lose an average of two inches in height in their lifetimes. They also lost muscle mass and it would not be uncommon for a woman of that time to easily fit in your crinoline. The waist actually seems large especially since it would have been placed over the corset, but many things can account for this. I don't know how tightly your crinoline could be tightened. Unlike today, women didn't advertise their pregnancies early on and a corset, though looser, might well have continued to be worn for a time. Just as now, there are countless exceptions in women's sizes based on genetics, nutrition, stations in life as well as if one stayed at home in the city or worked in the fields on the farm. However, largely our ggg grandmothers were significantly smaller than we are now.

Nice.

TRU SLAV

shouldn't this be called a "crinolette?"

Where do you get your vintage stuff?

Some women are short, even back then. Maybe it was made for a shorter lady

Hi. Thank you for making these videos. I feel like i'm learning a lot from them and they are fun to watch and listen to. I studied fashion design and fashion history in undergraduate, but there is so much that the classes couldn't cover.

Have you read Laura Ingalls Wilder? She wrote this great description. “Then carefully over her under-petticoats she put on her hoops. She liked these new hoops. They were the very latest style in the east, and these were the first of the kind that Miss Bell had got. Instead of wires, there were wide tapes across the front, almost to her knees, holding the petticoats so that her dress would lie flat. These tapes held the wire bustle in place at the back, and it was an adjustable bustle. Short lengths of tape were fastened to either end of it; these could be buckled together underneath the bustle, to puff it out, either large or small. Or they could be buckled together in front, drawing the bustle down close in back, so that a dress rounded smoothly over it. Laura did not like a large bustle, so she buckled the tapes in front.” LIW These Happy Golden Years.

I saw the exhibition on mourning attire at the Met's Costume Institute, and FIT's exhibition devoted to Mme Greffuhle. Those clothes were shockingly tiny.

Have you ever thought of making your own crinolines?

I'm reminded of the Cranford episode where one of the ladies orders what she thinks is a bird cage from Paris; turns out it's a crinoline! she sews cloth to the bottom to keep the bird in and proudly displays her parrot in it's Parisian cage. Eventualy she figures out she's been displaying an undergarment.

isnt not just designed for a little girl instead for a woman? 🤔

Maybe it was a child’s?

I happen to love being a part of your international audience! 😚

Oh, it would fit me! But I were afraid that I would destroy it while trying it on 😱!

Don't bend the hoops too often, unless you plan to add welding to your skill set.

This was so interesting to watch! Thank you Party Mom for sharing you're wisdom and knowledge with us.

I wonder how tall the original wearer was...

What if that one is for a kid??? because that is short and the waist...

"I hate having international following" I LOVED THIS - I was thinking it must be so annoying to stop and figure out the conversion / but i appreciate it. :) Love your channel!

For dating the crinoline, have a look there: www.french-crea-vintage.com/fr/patrons/2166-patrons-de-la-mode-illustree-1867-n49.html

I loved seeing your crinoline and hearing about it! One day This channel will be your day job! 😊👍🏼

3:20 is that blood on the cotton? i am concerned

Love those victory rolls! Could you maybe do a vintage hair tutorial?

I thank it's for a child

I am bingeing you videos... This is all so interesting. Also, you look so much like Imogen Heap.

what if it's a child's crinoline?

The "bone" is baleen, no?

im 5'1 and i've known many people shorter! environment and genetics can def contribute to shorter stature. something interesting i thought while watching was to maybe bring in the possibility of disability and/or disfigurement into the conversation? I know nothing is certain, and I'm not very learned in fashion history at all, but bringing up certain eccentricities on this piece (the fact that it's very small, not very wide, possibly altered, and in good condition such that maybe it wasn't handed down) made me think maybe it was a piece possibly made for someone with a very uncommon body type, one that possibly limited mobility, possibly needing aid in some way? just a thought because i obviously don't know, lol. tangentially, is there much information out there on how disability and historical fashion work? i think that'd be an interesting conversation, because a lot of what typifies discussions on fashion revolve around how abled bodies move and look. like is crinoline compatible with mobility aids back in the day? what of corsets and people with spinal or rib disfigurements (does it help/hinder)? actually, undergarments in general for disabled people? tailoring/altering practices? again, i don't know if i'm just missing a huge portion of fashion knowledge, but i'm just a casual enthusiast lol. thank you for your content!

If you want to see crinoline-movement, here's a modern example by priorattire: brdesk.info/like/video/gIq_pJW2n9Z7mYA

please,, where did you get your outfit, it’s so lovely

7:49 - 7:53 Vintage Slav Energy.

please do a reaction to Madonna´s performance of vogue 1990 vmas , was inspired on marie antoniette era

this would be from the south possible Mississippi, most likely one that small was for an young girl

I feel like Kirstin Dunst wore this in interviews with a vampire . Perhaps this piece was for a child?

After seeing Victorian costumes at the costume museum, it’s always surprising to see how small they were. I do think this is an adults dress, they just weren’t very tall back then.

she is always only so superficially informed and has the language of a bored 5th Grader.... Can't watch this anymore.

I believe it's a child's hoop skirt or crinoline.

I love the skirt you are wearing here, did you make it or purchase it somewhere?

So many people aren't going to get the murder reference when you apologised for your costume

“ a young girl whose say 4”11” I can’t 😂😂 I’m 4”11 and I’m 19 and I’ve been that height since before high school

I liked the rp

“I’m just gonna sit on the floor like a true Slav.” Lololol! Greetings from Illinois!

I suspect the the crinoline was for a teenager, say 12 to 15 years old, which would explain its small height size. I agree that it looks to be early 1870's style. Fantastic find.

You'd make a great garment historian. Looking at original garments, and figuring out what's been changed over the life of that garment.

As a 5ft tall woman, I can assure you that I'd feel like a serious shortie next to Karolina! She has to be at least 6ft tall!

Thanks for translating numbers meme mom! I’m American and I wish we could just be normal for once...

THEORY: maybe the upper channels exist because this piece was worn by more than one woman, the last of which was shorter than the one before. So they might've took out some to shorten it? Although it would've make more sense if they took out the ones at the bottom, so nevermind this comment

I knew nothing about crinolines but, now I know what one looks like, sort of. I appreciate the video very much! As far as measurements are concerned, I don't think you should worry about converting centimeters to inches. People can look up the conversions. I do like that you are concerned with accuracy. ^_^ Love your videos!

Me: *hears the word 'vintage'* My mind: *"Those 100 year old glasses that you have up in that one cabinet"* Me, to mind: *Shut up.*

the oldest thing i own is a 1949 Nancy Drew book lol

Meme mum: puts crinoline on *C R A C K* Meme mum: 0-0

could it have been worn by a child?

Karolina Żebrowska? More like Krynolina Żebrowska!

Maybe the crinoline belonged to a young woman from the ages 14-19 im not exactly sure because I'm no expert but just a thought