Chopines were platform shoes worn by women in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. They protected the shoes and dress from mud and street soil. Chopines were usually put on with the help of two servants. They caused an unstable and inelegant gait. Women who wore them usually were accompanied by a servant or attendant upon whom they could balance themselves. This high shoe allowed a woman to literally and figuratively tower over others. During the Renaissance, they became a regular article of women's fashion and got more and more lofty as the years went on. Some were over 20 inches in height! Have you ever worn platform heels?

Bombast was absolutely essential to the men's and women's clothing of the 16th century, yet it was never actually seen. Bombast was a form of stuffing made from cotton, wool, horsehair, or even sawdust. It was used to pad and add shape to a variety of garments, including the shoulders, chest, and stomach of the doublet, a kind of overshirt, and bodice; the bulky legs of men's hose like pumpkin breeches and Venetians; or the sleeves and shoulders of women's gowns. These garments could not have attained their exaggerated shape without the use of bombast. Do you think that this would've been an uncomfortably hot thing to wear?

The Minoans, an ancient civilization that existed on the island of Crete from around 3000 BCE to 1100 BCE, were known for their sophisticated and elaborate fashion sense. They were one of the first cultures to use corset-like garments, which they called a "strophe." The stropion was a simple garment made of linen or wool that was wrapped around the midsection and tied tightly to create a slimming effect. More modern corsets have been around in one form or another since the 5th century. They were originally made of stiffened fabric, and then evolved into cage-like contraptions made from whalebone, wood, or steel. Corsets caused organs to shift around, and caused indigestion, constipation and even breathing problems! In the 18th century, the slim waist fashion grew further and the look for a more constructed and extremely slim body shape increased in popularity. Wearing a garment to change your shape continues to persist in fashion. Today many people wear brands like Spanx and Skims to achieve a slimming effect. Have you ever worn a garment for the purpose of changing your shape?

Also known as the "Grecian bend," the Victorian bustle arrived on the scene in the 1870's. The earliest version of this trend simply featured excess fabric gathered and draped at the back of a dress. Eventually, though, skirts were puffed up with large cushions filled with straw. Ladies who wore them ended up with exaggerated figures with outthrust hindquarters. The bustle was frequently a target of ridicule. In 1868, Laura Redden Searing - using the pen name Howard Glyndon - wrote about the agony young women put themselves through for fashion in the New York Times, "If you knew the Spartan courage which is required to go through an ordeal of this sort for two or three hours at a time, you would not wonder that she has not an idea left in her head after her daily display is over," she said. Are you surprised that a female writer would use a masculine name as a pen name to criticize some women's fashion choices?