c. 1870-1890

Woman's Hoop Skirt

Although hoop skirts were definitely out of fashion by the early 1870s, some women continued to wear small hoops under their bustled dresses to keep their skirts clear of their legs. This hoop's thirty-five-inch waist-to-hem length indicates it was not worn by a girl, but by a grown woman; the diameter of only eighteen inches, however, would have ensured she take tiny, ladylike steps. A similarly sized hoop skirt, with steels only from hem to knee, was featured in a Bloomingdale's catalogue of 1886. This skirt is constructed from one continuous spiraled wire rather than the more usual separate, graduated hoops.