“Fashion and underwear are inextricably linked,” Susanna Cordner, research assistant on the “Underwear” exhibition, told AFP. One of the exhibition's centre-pieces — a hand-made corset fashioned by an Englishwoman of modest means — shows that such complex items were not confined to high-society, but had to be worn by all women for fear of upsetting moral sensibilities. The show also reveals how men also used corsets and other garments to provide support while playing sport and to flatter the shape, but not nearly to the extent of the women of the age.
See more here:
A brief history of underwear exposed at London’s V&A