Nowadays, we think of altering one’s silhouette with clothing as ‘cheating,' but in the Victorian Period, it was expected.

"We don't see those silhouettes anymore," she told Business ... And although she doesn't necessarily romanticize the Victorian era — "obviously things are better now socially, politically ...

In the 1850s, the invention of the crinoline changed the silhouette and the structure of the basic wardrobe of the Victorian-era woman. Crinoline was a structure of steel or whalebone hoops ...