Bustle

In 1857 Alexander Douglas patented the Victorian female attire, the bustle, which was a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman's dress.

Bustle, lady's undergarment, England, c. 1885.

The bustle replaced the crinoline as the vogue accessory designed to support the wearer's skirts in a fashionable shape.

Rising to popularity in the 1870s, the bustle was usually made of padded fabric, horsehair, or even metal cage constructions, worn under the skirt to exaggerate the posterior. 

The fashion craze was so widespread that newspapers joked about women requiring “reserved seating” on trams and needing to pass through doors sideways. One New York critic famously grumbled that women now looked like they were “carrying their children on their backs.”

Bustles came in many shapes and degrees of drama. Some were modest “tournures” that gently lifted the fabric, while others, such as the “lobster tail” bustle, were ambitious feats of engineering, creating towering back profiles worthy of architectural acclaim.

While the bustle was in vogue, the fullness of the skirt was concentrated at the back, the front falling straight.

Queen Victoria had a novelty bustle with a music box that played "God Save the Queen" when she sat down.

The bustle eventually fell out of favor by the late 1880s as fashion moved toward sleeker silhouettes, though it saw periodic revivals. In modern times, bustles have found a second life in wedding dress design, where the term now refers to the method of lifting and securing the train of a gown, allowing brides to dance without dragging half the reception behind them.