I just came across these rather nice illustrations of bustles from a pretty cool vintage book I snatched from under an old ladies nose in a thrift store a couple years ago. . .
Gloriously entitled ‘Taste & Fashion’ by the indomitable James Laver it is a splendidly out of date read, & gives a massive insight into how it used to be ‘done’! With chapters such as ‘The Theory of Decolletage’ & ‘The Two Bustles & the Aesthetic Movement’ how could I not squeal in delight & proceed with ill disguised glee to the till?
I am sure that now I have made my re-acquaintance with this priceless find I shall be quoting all over the place however; here is one to keep you going. From the ‘Lingerie’ chapter comes a glimpse of thigh. . .
“It is curious to note that the suspender, once invented, took a definite place not only in the history of fashion, but in the history of eroticism, largely owing to the cancan dancers in Paris in the middle nineties. . . In the course of her dance she lifted her skirts and displayed bare thighs traversed by suspenders, which kept the stockings in place. This thigh-eroticism was very prevalent in the nineties, and then suffered a long eclipse until the success of Marlene Dietrich in the Blue Angel brought it back once more into vogue.”
Steamy stuff, eh? A corker of a find, & actually very useful too, I recommend it if you need to know anything at all about the history of fashion or costume as it is very readable, with lovely illustrations throughout.
Happy stitching!
Thank you for the pictures! Wonderful to have such sketches for inspiration!
They’re lovely aren’t they? There’s more and I shall try to get them up at some point, it’s a book well worth hunting out as I haven’t seen the pictures in it anywhere else xxx