BUSTLE

item of feminine apparel for pushing out the skirt in back just below the waist; although used at various times since the 14th century, it was first known under this name in the 19th century. The specific fashion for the bustle, or tournure, came between 1865 and 1876 and again in the 1880s. It followed the decline of the crinoline (q.v.) and began as a bunching up of material behind the waist but became a wire cage attached to the petticoat, sticking out backward like a shelf, over which the dress material was draped. A pouf, or small saddle cushion at the back, worn in the 1860s and '70s, revived a fashion originating in France in the 1780s. But padded rolls at the hips were known as bum rolls and bearers in the 16th and 17th centuries, as cork rumps in the 18th, and finally as dress improvers in Victorian times.