It is no secret that women today are plagued by body image issues, no thanks to the relentless media glorification of waif-thin models and advertisements encouraging us to be slimmer, trimmer and bustier.

However, this preoccupation with the perfect form has existed for a long time, as a recent visit to the Paris exhibition, Behind The Seams, The Mechanics Of Underwear: An Indiscreet History Of The Silhouette, showed me.

Held at the city's Museum of Decorative Arts until Nov 24, the exhibition features a fascinating collection of undergarments from the 14th century to the present day.

This includes corsets, farthingales, panniers, bustles and all manner of mechanical contrivances created to draw in, push up and straighten out the natural bumps and creases of the human anatomy.

I couldn't help but ponder the irony of the fact that one of the most infamous torture instruments of yore is called the Iron Maiden when it has mostly been maidens who have had their ribs bent and, possibly, lungs punctured across the centuries by such contraptions.

On the interactive section of the exhibition, which allowed visitors to don some of these undergarments, I put on a corset and had a friend lace me up from behind, to the point where I almost fell over, either from the pulling of the laces or from sheer breathlessness; it was hard to figure out.

While a woman's ideal shape over the years may have varied in terms of her skirt size (panniers extended the sides, bustles gave heft to derrieres while farthingales just added circumference) and the shape and size of her bust (corsets over the years supported the breasts by either unifying, separating, amplifying or reducing them), all these mechanisms aimed to do one thing: make her silhouette slimmer and give her a wasp waist.

There was also a medical reason in the 16thcentury when corsets made of iron were used to correct curved spines. Such corrective garments were also designed for infants and children, to encourage them to sit up straight.

Men were also not spared the tyranny of illusory underwear. In their case, however, the area of focus was below the waist, as the exhibition's display of antique codpieces showed; and the desired effect was magnification, not minimisation. Some of the pieces were practically horizontal, which made one wonder how the wearer actually negotiated spaces without injuring himself or denting furniture and people.

Psychological confinement

Fortunately, we have been liberated from such baggage since, thanks not only to technology and science which have given us lighter support materials; but also to changing social mores, which eventually deemed it impractical as well as oppressive for women to be fainting and mincing all the time.

Instead, the subjugation now has become internalised. Spanx and push-up bras are harmless compared to the constant psychological pressure to be reed-thin and perfect - women in the 16th century didn't suffer from eating disorders, and they didn't feel the need to have a bikini-perfect body by summer or cellulite-free thighs.

The fashion industry has, of course, always been the main perpetrator of this beauty myth. Which is why Rick Owens' spring/summer 2014 collection, which also showed in Paris last week, was an utterly refreshing - and shocking - reminder of how jaded and despotic the fashion industry remains when it comes to perceptions of beauty, despite all its talk about model diversity.

Instead of using regular models, the American designer peopled the runway with women from college step teams. Stepping is a percussive dance which originated in African-American communities and in which parts of the body are used to create rhythms and sounds.

While other designers have incorporated the occasional non-models in their shows, Owens' was a full tableau of women who turned the tables on, not only the fashion industry's, but also society's perception of what a woman should look like and how she should behave.

There were no sample sizes on show - instead, each woman had to be individually measured for her outfit. And when they stomped down the runway with angry snarls, flaring nostrils and loud grunts, you could almost hear Emily Post turning in her grave.

For once, the tyranny of the silhouette was truly vanquished, as was the tyranny of beauty stereotypes - even the tyranny of what makes for a proper fashion show on the prestigious Paris runways.

But, sadly, once the show was over, it all seemed like a dream, and as other shows by other designers took over, we found ourselves bound, hooked and laced once again, to old conventions.

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