The Wartime Crinoline

At a time when people had little money to spare, fabric was a luxury and women had to work jobs that men would do at those times in order to afford any fabric. Kriegskrinoline (wartime crinoline) is the German term for the dress and suit silhouette that became the dominant fashion throughout Europe from 1915 to the early 1917, when women wore very wide skirts supported by many petticoats but without a hoped underskirt. Bell-shaped skirts were in fashion despite the difficult demands placed on women because of wartime and bad economic times. What I am referring to here is fashion during the war, years ago.

Even though skirts were high priced, which used a huge amount of material; it was contradicted by the poor quality of fabrics and modest trimmings. During World War I, the emphasis on traditional female forms gained new importance. For the first time, day dresses were barely calf-length, but the women wore them with high lace-up boots. Women also used jackets to accessorize their outfits or in their words as “military decoration”.

I leave you with a quote from Barbara Vinken...”Romanticism is a sign of crisis, the longing for tradition, for better times. When tomorrow has no appeal, two directions remain: the path inward and the path back.”