It's all about that bustle …

READING the newspapers and celeb magazines, one could easily imagine that the generously proportioned posteriors of Kim Kardashian and J-Lo were a completely new phenomenon, but visitors to a permanent exhibition at York Castle Museum will discover that displaying a rounded rump has been a fashion staple for centuries.

‘Since Elizabethan times, with a few notable exceptions, women’s fashion has been obsessed with highlighting and accentuating a woman’s curves, with corsets used to shape and cinch the waist, and from around 1580, a padded roll – known as a “bum roll” – that was tied around the hips,’ explains senior curator for the Shaping The Body exhibition, Ali Bodley. 

The Victorians took the concept of padding the rear end to more elaborate extremes.  ‘On display, and available for visitors to try on, we’ll have a number of original and replica dresses that feature a cushion that is tied to the waist to add extra volume, or even a shelf-effect, to the rear of women’s dresses,’ says Ms Bodley. ‘Prudish Victorians would not have liked using the vulgar term of “bum roll”, so it became known as a bustle.’

In the mid-19th century, the shape of the dress changed from being voluminous all around to having a relatively modest drape at the front and sides, but with much of the volume at the back, where it fell from the bustle.  Combined with a slim corseted waist, the style created a unique silhouette that highlighted curves without challenging Victorian decency standards.

In the exhibition, visitors will see not only the outer garments, but examples of historic corsetry, from an iron corset that was probably intended to support a woman with some back injury or defect, to a delicate 19-inch waist corset designed for a young woman and to be sufficiently comfortable to be worn during genteel sporting activities such as horse riding or tennis.

Alongside fashions from the last 400 years, Shaping The Body explores body modification – from Victorian ear straighteners to modern gender re-assignment, tattoos, and piercings – and the relationship between food and body image, from the original Sugar Tax to modern diets.  Visitors will also discover how lifestyle changes have changed body shapes, comparing the labour intensive work of farmers and domestic staff with today’s office-based culture.

“Shaping The Body: 400 years of food, fashion, and life” opened at York Castle Museum on March 25.

www.yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk

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Picture Credit: www.yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk