Bustles and cage crinoline showing the development of silhouette from the late 1850s through the 1880s.

At left, you can see the firmly shaped hourglass corset of the 1890s, in the center, the softly curving silhouette of the 1930s, and at right, the straight, boyish silhouette of the 1920s.

The softly curved silhouette of the 1930s was achieved with an elasticized foundation garment worn beneath bias-cut silk or rayon slip.

At right, you can see the high, wide-set breasts, exaggerated shoulders and narrow hips of the late 1930s through the mid-1940s. At left, is the corseted and crinolined  “New Look” silhouette of the late 1940s through the early 1960s.

Here, we can see the slender, youthful ideal of the 1960s embodied in wildly colorful underpinnings which provide minimal shaping.

At left you can see the “natural look” of the early 1970s. Minimal undergarments were required to achieve this silhouette, and bras were designed to offer support while maintaining  a “no bra” look.

At right, you can see the exaggerated shoulders of the 1980s, in the Hanky Panky shoulder pad camisole, designed by Gale Epstein in 1979. The left shows contemporary shapewear styles, and at center, is the Hanky Panky low rise thong paired with adhesive bra cups, representing the tiny, “invisible” underthings of the twenty-first century.