The shape of the crinoline has gradually…

The shape of the crinoline has gradually changed during the 1860s, its metamorphosis directed by the great couturier Charles Frederick Worth, who is especially noted for designing sumptuous crinolined gowns that reflect the elegance of the Second Empire period (1852-70).

From the dome shape of the 1850s, the crinoline had been altered to a pyramid in the 1860s.

Worth had flattened the front of the crinoline in 1864, and in the winter of 1867-68 he had abolished the garment completely in favor of long trains.

In 1869, he revives the Baroque rear bustle, or tournure, used at various times since the fourteenth century for pushing out the skirt in back just below the waist.

The bustle begins its new incarnation as a bunching up of material behind the waist.

This pouf, or small saddle cushion at the back, revives a fashion originating in France in the 1780s.

Worth has also devised smaller, shorter “walking” skirts.

The invention and widespread use of photography has effectively abolished any further need for the establishment of a specific clothing policy for art in opposition to that of high fashion.

It has become acceptable for painters and sculptors—like photographers—to render contemporary fashions accurately.

Extreme trends are still usually avoided, however, and portraitists of royalty often use uniforms and robes of orders of knighthood to confer a historical character.