Victorian Buns: The Obsession with Enormous Bustles

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Late Victorian flower show and garden party dresses with high bustles and fitted corset lines. Source: (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Long before the Kardashian girls started posting social media pics of their derrieres and before Sir Mix A Lot gave us the classic “Baby Got Back,” folks were still fascinated with women with predominant backsides. In the 1870s and 1880s, women’s fashion moved away from huge, bell shirts to dresses with a more streamlined, flat front and a party in the back. The bustle gave the appearance that the woman had enough badonkadonk for everyone. Let’s look at the Victorian bustle fad that made every woman look like she had augmentation.