AFRICAN CURVES: ENVY OF 19TH-CENTURY EUROPEAN WOMEN?

The bustle dress was a very popular dress during the Victorian era. It was a fashion accessory for upper-class women. Even though this dress was integrated into the couture fashion industry during the 19th century, the origin of its design lies in a very dark past: the exploitation of African women's bodies.

This dress design was inspired by the body features of Sarah Baartman, who was an enslaved Khoi Khoi woman from Cape Town, South Africa. She was displayed as a freak throughout her life in Europe and even after death because of these features.

It’s ironic that a woman whose body features and race, which was considered inferior, were the inspiration behind a fashion trend that once was a marker of wealth and European sophistication.