I was going to do all the hoop skirts in one post but I decided to break it into each individual style per post

The other day I wanted to find out exactly when the petticoats went back to a crinoline hoop skirt, so this lead me to do a bunch of research on the history of the hoop skirt.

Hoop skirts

Basicaly the hoop skirt is a womans undergarments, which were worn threw out the years to support skirts in the fashionable shape during the period.

A hoop skirts construction is of a consist of petticoats with casings sewn where hoop steels, whalebone, rope or other materials were used to hold it in the right shape.

Threw the era's there were Farthingales 16th, Panniers 18th, Crinoline mid 19th, Bustle 19th

The Farthingale

(Spanish verdugado) a term applied to an structures used under western European womans clothing in the late 15th and 16th centuries to support the skirts into the desired shape.

The Farthingale was used during 15th and 16th centuries, originated in Spain, the Spanish farthingale was originally stiffened with Giant cane, and later with willow cuttings, rope, and some where around 1580 whalebone.

Giant cane: Arundo donaz tall perennial cane ( reed)

Tudor Gowns show the silhouette of the Spanish Farthingale, and essential to Tudor fashion

French farthingales, 1580 ( also known as bumroll)

The French Farthingale was also known as a bumroll introduced 1570 to england from Franc

* it appears to have consisted of a bloster-like rool either stuffed or held out with reeds which being fastened around the hips, served the purpose of widening the skirts at the hip area, creating drapes.

* some modern costumes conjecture that the french farthingale and the great farthingale refer to one and that same garment, the difference in shape and construction being due to changes in fashion from the 1580's to the 1590's

Silhouette, 1590s Elizabeth 1, the Ditchley portrait

The Great farthingale also known as a drum or wheel or cartwheel and in some casses the Catherine-wheel, this name was given to the style of farthingale which evolved from the french farthingale, becoming fashionable in the 1590's

Unforunatly there are no surviving examples of this type of garment, but throw references like the painting of Queen Elizabeth above and her wardobe accounts during the time refer to the size of the structure.

The great farthingale was worn at an angle ("low befor + high behind") which elongated the torso and shortened the legs.