Corsets and girdles are undergarments that control the shape of the body, usually the female body. The earliest recorded corset is shown on a figurine of a snake goddess from Crete, dated about 2,000 b.c. Ancient Greek and Roman women, too, wore bands...

A corset is a garment worn to mold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes (either for the duration of wearing it, or with a more lasting effect). Both men and women are known to wear corsets. Many garments sold as...

THE CORSET A Cultural History by Valerie Steele Yale University Press, $39.95 THIRD-WAVE FEMINISTS WAVing copies of Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth once proclaimed that men had hatched an ominous conspiracy to trick women into pursuing an impossible beauty ideal rather than...

A memoir of old St. Paul BY MARY ROSE O'REILLEY WE ARE GOING DOWNTOWN on the Grand Avenue car to buy Grandma Rose's new corsets at Schuneman's.... "We are going to visit Miss Dellaney, my corseteer": my grandmother's promise has summoned Miss...

Looking for a 2-foot lacquered sushi boat or antique ribbon? How about a feather mask, a zebra hide or a lampshade custom-made from parchment? Perhaps a vintage accordian or Chilean goat-toe shaker (a rhythm instrument) would bring out your inner...

A saloon-style striptease at an Australian government-sponsored conference on global warming left some scientists and government officials hot and bothered. The show was cut short and organizers issued an apology after some delegates at the Australia and New...