The Crinoline Staircase.

The post below (Onesies)  is about a current fashion that I find particularly ugly- but I'm sure every age has a fashion that offends someone, somewhere. And really, that's as it should be I think. After all, fashion is an art form and art should 'rattle the cage' I think.
I'll bet there were many people who found the fashion for crinoline skirts ridiculous. It all began at the turn of the Nineteenth century with the bustle. Presumably this was when the question " Does my bum look big in this?" was first asked. At that time the correct answer was probably "Yes, dear"; but as many a sad gentleman knows today, that's no longer the case.

By the 1830's the fashion had got out of control and women wore huge structures made of whalebone or cane to support extraordinarily wide skirts, called crinolines. As the fashion peaked, skirts got wider until eventually it became necessary to construct special staircases such as the one above. It's the first (and only) one I've ever seen and it's in the Royal Overseas Club in London.