It is easy to dismiss a corset as somewhat of an ancient artifact or a throwback to the Victorian Age. After all, most people of the current generation have only been exposed to corset imagery in period films. They are synonymous with images of images of the wealthy and the royal being dressed by their lady servants.

This really is not such a wrong impression. The corset did have its heyday in the nineteenth century. Then, the female figure was forcefully molded a certain way so as to have women fit what was then considered the ideal form.

The corset was not always just a high class women's accessory. Also, it was not always constructed to give women the hourglass shape for which it is probably most famous for.

Even in the nineteenth century men wore them to accentuate their shape to fit the current fashion. What was considered to be an ideal shape for men and women varied from decade to decade. The idea of the hourglass figure