16 Painful And Ridiculous Undergarments You’ll Be Glad Stayed In The Past

Women began wearing these cages to poof up their skirts and dresses back in the 1800s. Unfortunately, they had the dangerous side effect of being extremely prone to flammability.

According to MacLean's, there were about 3,000 deaths linked to the garment from the late 1850s through the 1860s just in England alone.

Victorian ladies liked to give their rumps some extra oomph with these ruffled or metal bumps, giving them the appearance of a more robust bottom.

Before modern pads and tampons, women spent their "time of the month" strapping into these frustrating contraptions.

Nope, not even an expectant mama could go without a corset back in the day, as you can see by this design from the early 1900s.

Of course, they also had to keep things nice and tight while breastfeeding their infant, as you can see from this ad dated back to 1896.

Paying a dollar for them might seem like a good deal, but according to an inflation calculator, the price for the restrictive undergarment would be equivalent to nearly $30 today.

According to this ad, it didn't take long for a youngster to join her mom in sporting one of their own mini corsets: "Fits baby too!"

According to several historians, this super-cinched design was actually meant to be better for women, with the straight front and curved back forming an S-shape.

Valerie Steele, author of The Corset: A Cultural History, explains how these particularly menacing corsets most likely weren't used for fashion purposes.

Instead, they were probably used to fix orthopedic issues or for novelty.

This 18th-century undergarment was clearly used to trick the eye into seeing a smaller waist with the absurdly accentuated hips.

Before tights and pantyhose made their way up to a lady's waist as we're used to today, women had to use these clips to keep their stockings in place. They were particularly popular in the 1940s and '50s.

Did you know kids wore garter belts back in the day, too? It makes sense that they would need help keep their stockings up as well, but this ad showing a little boy and girl sporting the device is certainly surprising.

When women joined the war effort during World War II, they were equipped with these clunky brassieres in order to protect them from injuries.

Here's hoping there weren't any incidents with sparks flying or the heat from machines causing these to melt while on the job.

Before Spanx and other modern shapewear, these full-body girdles were the way to go once corsets went out of style.

Just like corsets, manufacturers made sure to provide the tight undergarment for pregnant women as well.

They might have given it a fancy name to make it sound slightly more macho, but there's no hiding the fact that this is simply a girdle aimed at men.

Actresses like Marilyn Monroe and Lana Turner helped popularize this pointy style of undergarments, which allowed women to appear a full cup size larger than they might actually be.

Were you surprised by any of these blasts from the past?

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