Shaping the body: from corsets to bullet-bras

Eleri Lynn, author of the V&A book 'Underwear: Fashion in Detail', tells the story of shape-wear: from the steel and whalebone engineering of Victorian and Edwardian corsetry, to the breast-flattening bandeau bras worn by 1920s flappers, the bullet-bras of the 1950s, the arrival of Lycra in the 1960s, and the contemporary popularity of burlesque.

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