Hobble skirt

Hobble skirt from a fashion magazine from 1914

A hobble skirt is a particularly tight, floor-length skirt . It first came into fashion in the 19th century. Synonyms and related names: Fesselrock, Mumienrock, (English) hobble skirt, (French) jupe entravée, hose skirt. In contrast to the historical hobble skirt, a pencil skirt is at most calf-length, but usually ends below the knee.

history

Hobble skirts appeared in fashion several times . An early example are the skirts around 1880, which, however, became wider again a few years later. In a narrower sense, the term hobble skirt describes the particularly tight and long skirts from 1910/11. The hobble skirts of the French fashion designer Paul Poiret became known , but numerous other fashion designers of the era also designed hobble skirts, including Lucile , Jeanne Paquin and Léon Bakst . The common and eponymous feature is that the wearer can only take small steps in it, so they are forced to clumsy stumbling or hobbling.

The tight skirts experienced a second heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, especially in the USA, but they were no longer floor-length. And as the Oscar awards show in 2005 (for example Mariah Carey ), hobble skirts are still worn today. However, they are not part of current fashion and are rejected by most women as uncomfortable.

Satirical postcard, around 1911. Caption: “What is that? A rock with a speed limit! "

Patent drawing from 1913

Around 1910 there were repeated reports in the press about accidents as a result of the limp skirts, which restricted movement: women often fell down stairs, did not cross the street quickly enough, or were injured when getting out of carriages and automobiles. American train stations added steps to allow women to get on trains, and Dallas, USA, gave serious thought to lowering the sidewalks for safety reasons.

In order to avoid accidentally tearing the hem or the seams, ankle cuffs made of fabric were occasionally worn under the dress or corsets extended to over the thighs , with which the legroom could be restricted by a separate lacing.

literature

• Ingrid Loschek : Reclam's fashion and costume lexicon. 5th, updated and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-010577-3 , p. 273 f.
• NJ Stevenson: The History of Fashion. Styles, trends and stars. Haupt, Bern et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-258-60032-1 , p. 82 f.

Web links

Commons : Humpelrock  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Original text: “What's that? It's the speed-limit skirt! "