Circus may appear to be a world apart, but there is one area where it al;ways keeps up with the fashion.
Circus costumes have changed over the decades just as streetwear has - what was appropriate for a performance in the 1800s would be laughable today.
When my parents first put their sharpshooting act together, my father bared his chest and wore long hair - pretty radical for the 1940s. But he was part Apache Indian and so it wa expected that he would look wild and untamed.
My mother, on the other hand, had to obey convention. She wore a long fringed dress that covered almost her whole body, and boots that took care of any exposed leg.
Some years after the act was launched, it was featured in a French publication. The romantic French editor, a member of a nation that was always a little more liberal in terms of exposed flesh, considred photos o the act "regrettable". Not that he wasn't impressed with the act itself - it was just that "La Belle Indienne" was so covered up!
He immediately commissioned an artist to render the publicity shots ino something more appropriate for his readership ( and, yes, it WAS a family magazine!).
The artist left dad alone, he looked fine. But my mother skillfully drawn face now glanced flirtatiously from a body clad in a fringed bikini.
These days, it would probably lead to litigation.
My parents figured the artist had something - mum looked much better in the outifit he had imagined. So they copied it, and from then on, mum's fabulous legs became legendary in show business.
The idea of having to cover up on stage or in the ring seems laughable now. Even mum's fringed bikini had to cover the belly button, stop at the top of the legs and show no more cleavage than was considered proper.
Now retired, she says wistfully that she wished Ilussion, that amazing fabric of which so many modern costumes are made, had been acceptable, or even invented, back then.
Before one TV appearance, our costumes were actually sewn to the top of our tights by a wardrobe woman, to make sure we didn't expose any unseemly cheekiness!
Today's light fabrics and sleek costumes give greater freedom, and can't help but improve the performance overall.
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