Ellen G. White and Her Critics

The Fashions of a Bygone Day

What was the fashion picture at the time Mrs. White wrote? That was the day of the hoop skirt, known often as crinolines, those billowing gowns, held out at the base with great metal hoops. That was the day of the wasplike waist, made so by tight-fitting corsets. That was the day when there were many and heavy undergarments, apparently intended not so much to give warmth as to give bulk and amplitude. That was the day of whalebones, that further served to strait-lace women’s garments. And approximately at that time appeared the bustle skirt, with its curious surplus of clothing, posterior and near the base of the spine, that conveyed the impression of unstable equilibrium, by changing the center of gravity. Also, in those days flourished the trailing skirt, with its prodigal disregard of the cost of cloth per yard, so that it swept up many square yards as a woman walked. EGWC 138.4

This description might have been made more colorful. But this need not be done. Others, who had no interest in defending Mrs. White, and who probably never knew her, have left us descriptions of the times and the fashions that are more colorful than anything we could write. EGWC 138.5