Simultaneously published under title: Would you believe-- in 1500, platform shoes were outlawed? London : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 45) and index.

Fashionable figures -- Ancient attitudes -- Forbidden fashions -- Smooth operator -- Fashion victims -- If you've got it, flaunt it -- Miss beehive -- A hat for all occasions -- Wild and untamed -- Bras and bindings -- Crinolines and bustles -- Waists like wasps -- Squeezing and shaping -- Skin deep -- My feet are killing me -- The unkindest cut of all -- Why stop at the ear? -- All my own teeth -- Makeup and beauty -- Poisonous potions -- What's so weird about that?

"Describes changing ideas of fashion and beauty through history and around the world"--Provided by publisher.