Legend has it that in Victorian times, tables and pianos were required to cover their legs so the sensibilities of the people viewing them would not be hurt. The lady tables and pianos had it lucky - they could drape themselves in lacy petticoats and velvet skirts, but since the tailors on Saville Row didn't take orders from the men, they were forced to go into hiding till gentler Edwardian times.
But all that applies only to the furniture that graced Victorian parlours. What about the shapely legs of furniture which hadn't yet left the carpenter's workroom? Did they flounce around in ragged petticoats and gingham aprons while they were worked on? And what about the débutantes who graced the showrooms? Were they allowed to lift their full white skirts to display their shapely legs to potential buyers, or were they only allowed to grant a discrete flash of leg?
And if the Victorians were such prudes about public display of slim calves and thunder thighs, how did they allow all the guests at a dinner party to get under their skirts without so much as a murmur?
Not having lived in corseted times, I can only conjecture. Or maybe I could ask these men- the way they are studiously ignoring the shapely legs thrust into their faces, they could only be time-travelers from that era.
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