VICTORIAN SOCIETY UNDRESSED

This garment was known simply as a waist.

"Think what the corset told Victorian women about their bodies: their natural, healthy size and shape were an abomination to be squeezed down to the smallest possible circumference by corsets constructed of the strongest steel and whalebone, as if nature had perfected man but delivered him a flawed companion."

-- From Sally Irvine's text

The very Victorian Ann Trotter might have fainted if she'd known the trousseau she was assembling in 1898 for her wedding to a Baptist minister one day would be publicly displayed -- right down to her undergarments.

Of course, if her red Parisian-made corset with the 20-inch waist is any indication of Trotter's true self, she might not have minded so much.

Fifty-five pieces of Ann Trotter's clothing will be exhibited in "Parisian Trousseau for a Missouri Bride," a new show opening Sunday at the University Museum.

This collection is special because it represents an entire 19th century wardrobe in the highest fashion from a single year, "a snapshot in fashion history," Irvine says.

"...It was like somebody was reading Vogue."

The collection is on loan from the Margaret Harwell Art Museum in Poplar Bluff, its home since donated by the Trotter family in 1970s.

Ann Trotter was a typical upper-class lady of the 1890s. Her family helped found the town of Carrollton, Mo., outside Kansas City. By the time their 31-year-old only daughter married Thomas L. West, he already had achieved statewide stature within his church.

After their marriage, the couple left on a trip around the world.

The perfectly preserved and elaborate clothing, a mix of wool, cotton, silk and even artificial fur, can tell much about the woman who wore it -- her excellent taste in clothes mostly was limited to dignified whites, blacks and grays -- but much more about the role women played in society at that time, curator Sally Irvine says.

"It was the job of a Victorian lady to be living evidence of her husband's station," Irvine says.

That's why so much care went into Trotter's wardrobe. As Irvine writes in the exhibit notes, "These skirts and waists and jackets were as important to Ann Trotter West in her life as a Missouri minister's wife in 1898 as the tools modern women use in their professions today."

A woman's trousseau, especially for a woman in the upper class, was part of her dowry. "Sisters, grandmothers, aunts and cousins would join the bride and her mother to choose garments and share their dreams and expectations," Irvine writes in the accompanying text.

Seamstresses also were a necessity.

It was the day of the bustle, waspish waistline and impossibly pointed shoes. Twenty yards of silk might go into a single dress, much of it in the back and leg-of-mutton sleeves.

It was a time when women were so concerned about the shape of their bodies that some had their lower ribs surgically removed to shrink their waist.

"That's the way people wanted to see women in society," Irvine says, adding that the urge to reshape women's bodies hasn't really changed. "Now it's done with dieting and exercise."

It is not known whether Trotter suffered from any of the "corset diseases" that afflicted many women during the Victorian period: spinal deformities, miscarriages, poor digestion and chronic lightheadedness among them.

The surfeit of clothing worn by Victorian women could weigh as much as 25 pounds. To illustrate the burden they bore, the museum has provided visitors with a 25-pound try-on vest.

Besides the clothing, the exhibit also will display photographs of the couple and an 1890s sewing machine, a tool indispensable to the women of the era.

An opening reception will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday in the museum gallery. Present will be Susan Trotter Broiles, a daughter of Ann Trotter's nephew. The exhibit will continue through Jan. 31.