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farthingale

Apparel
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A hoop skirt or frame worn under a gown to extend the skirts outwards, creating a distinctive bell or drum shape, fashionable in the 16th and early 17th centuries and a vivid visual in historical poetry.

Detailed Definition
The farthingale is one of the most dramatically sculptural garments in European fashion, and its appearance in poetry immediately evokes the Tudor and Elizabethan courts. Made of whalebone, wood, or cane hoops sewn into a stiffened fabric, it supported the heavy skirts of the period, requiring the wearer to move with a rolling, stately gait. Poets use the farthingale to emphasize female grandeur and the artificiality of court life—the enormous width of the garment can symbolize the expansive demands of royalty, or conversely, the isolation of a woman within her own clothes. Its unwieldy nature also provides comic opportunities, as ladies struggle through doorways or are knocked over by a gust of wind. In contrast to the farthingale's rigidity, poets sometimes juxtapose it with natural, flowing forms, critiquing the excesses of fashion.
Example
Example in poetry:
"Her farthingale's whalebone hoops created a bell that preceded her into every room"; "The farthingale made her stately as a galleon under full sail"; "She struggled through the doorway, her farthingale wedged between the frames"; "The farthingale's width was a declaration of wealth and the burden of fashion"; "In Elizabethan verse, the farthingale signals courtly grandeur and its absurdities"; "Her farthingale swayed like a great bell as she danced the pavane"
Additional Notes
The farthingale is one of the most dramatically sculptural garments in European fashion, and its appearance in poetry immediately evokes the Tudor and Elizabethan courts. Made of whalebone, wood, or cane hoops sewn into a stiffened fabric, it supported the heavy skirts of the period, requiring the wearer to move with a rolling, stately gait. Poets use the farthingale to emphasize female grandeur and the artificiality of court life—the enormous width of the garment can symbolize the expansive demands of royalty, or conversely, the isolation of a woman within her own clothes. Its unwieldy nature also provides comic opportunities, as ladies struggle through doorways or are knocked over by a gust of wind. In contrast to the farthingale's rigidity, poets sometimes juxtapose it with natural, flowing forms, critiquing the excesses of fashion. Related terms include hoop skirt and crinoline. Students should note the farthingale's specific historical association with the Tudor period and its role in poems about courtly life and female constraint.
Also Known As
whalebone hoop Elizabethan skirt frame conical support
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