Another way to make use of the new petticoats that have lately become fashionable, plate 294 from Actualités

Honoré Daumier made ample fun of the voluminous wire frame skirt known as crinoline, which had been criticized for hiding the natural human form. These women use them to take flight. The fashion was not entirely without defenders: in his 1858 work De la mode (On Fashion), Théophile Gautier commended the skirt as offering a statuesque pedestal to set off the bust and head. The evolution to the crinoline skirt, from its precursor the petticoat, can be seen in the Art Institute’s summer 2013 exhibition, Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity.