Hoop skirt

Hoop petticoat or pannier, English, 1750-80. Plain-woven linen and cane. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.2007.211.198.

A hoop skirt or hoopskirt is a women's undergarment worn in various periods to hold the skirt extended into a fashionable shape. It's tudor name was a 'farthingale'.

Hoop skirts typically consist of a fabric petticoat sewn with channels designed to act as casings for stiffening materials, variously rope, osiers, whalebone, steel, or, from the mid-20th century, nylon.

Hoop skirts are called by various names in different periods:

• Farthingale (Spanish verdugado} (16th century)
• Panniers or "side hoops" (18th century)
• Crinoline or crinolette (mid-19th century)

Lightweight hoop skirts, usually with nylon hoops, are worn today under very full-skirted wedding gowns. They can sometimes be seen in the gothic fashion scene. Reproduction hoop skirts are an essential part of living history costuming, including American Civil War reenactment.

References

• Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion: the cut and construction of clothes for men and women 1560-1620, Macmillan 1985. Revised edition 1986. ISBN 0-89676-083-9
• Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion 1 (cut and construction of women's clothing, 1660-1860), Wace 1964, Macmillan 1972. Revised metric edition, Drama Books 1977. ISBN 0-89676-026-X.
• Arnold, Janet:Patterns of Fashion 2: Englishwomen's Dresses and Their Construction C.1860-1940, Wace 1966, Macmillan 1972. Revised metric edition, Drama Books 1977. ISBN 0-89676-027-8
• Arnold, Janet: Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, W S Maney and Son Ltd, Leeds 1988. ISBN 0-901286-20-6