Bought in Paris This French rectangular bustle pad is stuffed with straw and would have provided a firm shelf-like support for the skirt and petticoats worn over it. This helped create the fashionable silhouette of the mid 1880s a period in which bustles briefly returned to favour. Bustle pad Au Louvre France, Paris, about 1885 Glazed calico, stuffed with straw and trimmed with silk cord V&A: T.377-1978 [16/04/2016-12/03/2017]