Dress

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A waistline rising slightly from 1860s was offset by the visual subterfuge of pulling all the fabric of the skirt into an airy bustle or pouf at the back. The graceful front view was preeminent; necessarily, a side silhouette was that of a truncated torso over a very full skirt. The coiffure of the period accorded with these proportions and called for a big coil of hair appropriate to balance the massing of the posterior pouf.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art