Red-Coat
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2019
- Messages
- 7,901
- Reaction score
- 25,037
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Surrey, UK
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
- #1
Thread Owner
Knee-painting was a thing for trendy young girls in the 1920s, especially in America. As fashionable hemlines began to rise to knee level and a little beyond during the ‘flapper’ era, young ladies initially took to applying blusher to their knees, followed by paintings of flora and fauna, and then images of their pets, ‘besties’, beaus and heartthrobs Who knew?
As well as being considered cute and daring, it was also intended to shock their elders who had been brought up in an era of prudishness and modesty.
However, the notion that Victorian table and piano legs were shrouded with little fabric skirts in the interests of modesty is largely a myth. It seems to have arisen from a satirical travelogue titled “A Diary in America” published in 1839 by the British naval officer Capt. Frederick Marryat. Poking fun at prudish bible-belt Americans, he joked that during a visit to a seminary (church educational institution) he saw piano legs covered with "modest little trousers with frills" to protect young ladies' purity. The joke was lost on many readers and became popularised as fact.
As well as being considered cute and daring, it was also intended to shock their elders who had been brought up in an era of prudishness and modesty.
However, the notion that Victorian table and piano legs were shrouded with little fabric skirts in the interests of modesty is largely a myth. It seems to have arisen from a satirical travelogue titled “A Diary in America” published in 1839 by the British naval officer Capt. Frederick Marryat. Poking fun at prudish bible-belt Americans, he joked that during a visit to a seminary (church educational institution) he saw piano legs covered with "modest little trousers with frills" to protect young ladies' purity. The joke was lost on many readers and became popularised as fact.
