It's easy to laugh at such follies as the 1903 ad for "Men's Corsets, An Absolute Necessity," or the male stockings with fake calf muscles, but many of the body-distorting items in this exhibition are recent fashion misstatements. Categorized by anatomy--feet, waist, chest--this show is most surprising not when comparing Victorian support garments to the 2000 Issey Miyake bustier (above) but in its cross-cultural references. The Mongo women of Zaire, for example, wore a belt that looks like the tail of a Playboy Bunny.
--By Belinda Luscombe
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