.. of the skirt. There were only so many tiers and ruffles one could add without the weight of them smashing the petticoats below, and defeating the whole point of making a giant, domed skirt.
When Victoria’s buddy, Empress Eugenie of France introduced her to the “crinoline”, the world was introduced to it too.
(See last year’s blogs about Eugenie. Here she is surrounded by courtiers, also in crinolines in 1855)