Fashion Etiquette and Absurdities

The body and waist of the dress are remarkable only in one respect the last is exceedingly tight, and the former rather loose at the top and exceedingly low. It is below the waist that what is monstrous in the costume first attracts and then repels the eyes of man. A hoop of moderate dimensions, overspread with an underskirt or two, and a dress of whatever fabric, are worn. Underneath the rear of this hoop, just below the waist of the person designated, is bound a coil of wire from two to three inches in diameter, which “throws out” and elevates the upper portion of the dress behind, and forms the foundation, so to speak, of an exterior protuberance called the pannier. –Public domain image of a Pannier –

(England, circa 1780 Costumes; underwear (upper body) Linen twill and baleen Center back length: 14 7/8 in. (37.7825 cm) Purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne (M.2007.211.353) Costume and Textiles Also illustrated: Hoop petticoat or pannier, English, 1750-80. Plain-woven linen and cane. (M.2007.211.198) Chemise, English, 1775-1800. Plain woven cotton. (M.2007.211.428)

The Latest Fashionable Absurdity

SARATOGA, August. The nights are, more absolutely than they ever were, devoted to follies the most fascinating, and exhibitions of fashionable manners and attire so absurd, that it would seem as if the tailors and modistes had conspired together this season to play a monstrous joke upon their patrons. Perhaps the dandies are worth less notice than ever. The difference between a fop and a gentleman in the United States is happily wide enough to render it impossible that any sane person should ever confound the two. But the difference between a female popinjay and a lady is here defined by such a curious and vulgar set of peculiarities ap- pertaining to the former person, that I cannot forbear to describe them. In the first place, a toilette is affected, which of itself suffices to turn a woman in full dress into a caricature.

The body and waist of the dress are remarkable only in one respect the last is exceedingly tight, and the former rather loose at the top and exceedingly low. It is below the waist that what is monstrous in the costume first attracts and then repels the eyes of man. A hoop of moderate dimensions, overspread with an underskirt or two, and a dress of whatever fabric, are worn. Underneath the rear of this hoop, just below the waist of the person designated, is bound a coil of wire from two to three inches in diameter, which “throws out” and elevates the upper portion of the dress behind, and forms the foundation, so to speak, of an exterior protuberance called the pannier. The pannier is a bustle, more or less enormous, upon which, in successive folds or layers gathered up or confined by a band encircling the dress from the stomach of the wearer around and beneath, an extra skirt, reaching just below the posterior, hangs, or or rathe rather “wobbles” to and fro. The dress has a train from four to six feet in length.

The posture affected in order to set off this attire is called the “Grecian Bend,” a contortion of the body which, as it is highly improper in itself, I find it difficult to describe with propriety. High-heeled shoes dispose the wearer to incline forward, and dispose high-heeled gaiters are, therefore, adopted by the “belle of the season.” She is thus the more readily enabled to elevate her hips behind, enhancing the aspect of the panier, to contract her stomach, and to form an S-like curvature of her upper shape, by thrusting out her chest, drawing back her shoulders, and bending forward her head. The latter is crowned by a hideous chignon, surpassing by several inches the thickness of the shallow nether brain. 

So bent and deformed, the belle constrains her elbows against her sides; and, with horizontal forearms and little gloved hands dangling from limp wrists, tilts painfully along. The profile of such a figure, and its ungraceful gait, are irresistibly suggestive of a lame kangaroo. When it is whirled and tossed about in a dance by one of the fashionable jumping-jacks in black broadcloth, who are here so numerous and so much alike that you can hardly tell one from another, the sight- what with the bobbing up and down of the woman's panier and the agile sidelong leaps of the jumping-jack across the immense trail piled on the floor- is too exasperatingly ridiculous for laughter.

It has been confided to me by an elderly woman with whom I conversed at a recent ball, that the distortion of the shape known as the Grecian Bend” is quite painful and wearisome, and that some girls adopt artificial contrivances to aid them in preserving the posture for several consecutive hours. A belt is fastened about the waist, under the skirts. From this belt, down either side the hips, the straps furnished with buckles, descend and are attached to strong bands, made fast around the lower thighs. As the buckles of the straps are tightened the hips are drawn up and held “in position.” This, says my amiable informant, "is a relief, of course, to only one part of the frame. The constriction of the upper part has to be preserved with no other aids than the stays; and those often render it the more difficult and tiresome.

“You perhaps notice another peculiarity about some of the ladies' dresses. The bodies are not only cut very low, but are so far from clinging jealously to the figure as to seem to challenge the gaze of partners to that satisfaction in regard to the reality of certain charms, which it was formerly claimed by marriageable bachelors that they were denied. So gracious a condescension on the part of our belles,” continued the matron, in a tone tingling with irony, “commends them, you will surely admit, as a far more honest and unequivocating set than the haunts of fashion are used to boast of.” 

And, indeed, this claim might be founded upon proofs even more striking than the one alluded to. Nobody who has been entrapped here, as a spectator of the frequent displays of under-drapery on the stairways and the edges of verandahs and colonnades, can doubt that many of the embroidered hose and delicate laces which adorn the limbs of the exhibitors were donned as well for beauty as for wear, and that the manner of making a graceful disclose of them is studied as a fine art. – Correspondence of the New York World, 1868

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor of the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia  

Gilded Age Advice on Gracefulness

Study the graces of manner, motion, and position. Grace is natural, no doubt, but most of us have nearly lost sight of nature. It is often with the greatest difficulty that we find our way back to her paths. It seems a simple and easy thing to walk, and a still easier and simpler thing to stand or sit, but not one in twenty perform either of these acts with ease and grace. There are a hundred little things connected with attitude, movement, the carriage of the arms, the position of the feet and the like, which, though seemingly unimportant are really essential to elegance and ease. Never despise these little things, or be ashamed to acquire the smallest grace by study and practice.

You desire to be a person of “good standing” in society. How do you stand? We refer now to the artistic or esthetic point of view. If you are awkward, you are more likely to manifest your awkwardness in standing than in walking. Do you know where to put your feet and what to do with your hands? In the absence of any better rule or example, try to forget your limbs, and let them take care of themselves. But observe the attitudes which sculptors give to their statues; and study also those of children, which are almost always graceful, because natural. 

Avoid, on the one hand, the stiffness of the soldier, and, on the other, the ape-like suppleness of the dancing-master; and let there be no straining, no fidgeting, no uneasy shifting of position. You should stand on both feet, bearing a little more heavily on one than the other. The same general principles apply to the sitting posture. This may be either graceful, dignified, and elegant, or awkward, abject, and uncouth. The latter class of qualities may be got rid of and the former acquired, and depend upon it, it is a matter of some consequence which of them characterizes your position and movements. Walking is not so difficult an accomplishment as standing and sitting, but should receive due attention. 

It has a very close connection with character, and either of them may be improved or deteriorated through the other. A close observer and a sensible and trustworthy monitor of their own sex thus enumerates some of the common faults of women in their “carriage,” or manner of walking: “Slovenliness in walking characterizes some. They go shuffling along, precisely as if their shoes were down at the heel — ‘slipshod’ — and they could not lift up their feet in consequence. If it is dusty or sandy, they kick up the dust before them and fill their skirts with it. This is exceedingly ungraceful. If I were a gentleman, I really do not think I could marry a lady who walked like this; she would appear so very undignified, and I could not be proud of her.

“Some have another awkwardness. They lift up their feet so high that their knees are sent out before them showing the movement through the dress. They always seem to be leaving their skirts behind them, instead of carrying them gracefully about them. Some saunter along so loosely they seem to be hung on wires; others are as stiff as if they supposed only straight lines were agreeable to the eye; and others, again, run the chin forward considerably in advance of the breast, looking very silly and deficient in self-respect.

“Sometimes a lady walks so as to turn up her dress behind every time she puts her foot back, and I have seen a well-dressed woman made to look very awkward by elevating her shoulders slightly and pushing her elbows too far behind her. Some hold their hands up to the waist, and press their arms against themselves as tightly as if they were glued there; others swing them backward and forward, as a business man walks along the street. Too short steps detract from dignity very much, forming a mincing pace; too long steps are masculine.

“Some walk upon the ball of the foot very flatly and clumsily; others come down upon the heel as though a young elephant was moving; and others, again, ruin their shoes and their appearance by walking upon the side of the foot. Many practice a stoop called the Grecian bend, and when they are thirty, will pass well, unless the face be seen, for fifty years' old.”

Gymnastics, dancing, and the military drill are excellent auxiliaries in the work of physical training, though all of them may be, and constantly are, abused. We can not illustrate their application here. They will receive the attention they deserve in “Hints toward Physical Perfection,” already referred to as in preparation. - How To Behave: A Pocket Manual Of Republican Etiquette, And Guide To Correct Personal Habits, by Samuel R Wells, 1888

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia