A strange name and an even stranger object, the crinoline appeared on the fashion scene in the mid 1800s. The name is a combination word of 'crin' - a stiff material made using horse hair - and 'linen.' But it wasn't the stiff fabric that gave the crinoline its remarkable silhouette; it was the under-hoops, made of bone or even steel, which formed a cage.
Such was its popularity that some steel factories catered exclusively to the crinoline market. Crinoline-only shops offered them for sale to an eager public. Yet it was, as is obvious, a very difficult object to wear. It was also a deadly fire hazard. From the late 1850s to the late 1860s, around 3,000 women died in crinoline fires in England.
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