Category: Body shaping

In short: For about 250 years, people have reshaped the body from the outside before anyone could change it from the inside. Stiffened stays and corsets of the 1700s and 1800s gave way to rubber girdles in the 1920s to 1940s, then to stretchy nylon shapewear. Surgeons began removing fat in the 1920s, liposuction took its modern form in the 1970s, and in 2010 the FDA authorized the first fat-freezing device, the start of CoolSculpting. Every step changed the outline of the body, and none of them is a way to lose weight: shapewear moves soft tissue, and contouring removes or shrinks a limited amount of fat in one area.

This page traces body shaping from museum corsets to today’s clinic treatments, with dates from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, medical journals and FDA records. If you are shopping now, our shapewear guide explains fabrics and fit; if you are curious about treatments, start with our body contouring hub. If your goal is to lose weight, our lose weight guide is the place to begin.

1700s to 1800s: stays, corsets and whalebone

The Met’s Costume Institute holds a French corset from the late 1760s made of silk, linen, leather, wood and baleen, the flexible plates from whales’ mouths that were long called “whalebone.” Its collection also includes Italian stays from the mid-18th century, British stays from the late 1700s and American cotton stays from 1825 to 1835. These garments did not make anyone thinner. They held the torso in the fashionable shape of the day.

By the mid-1800s, the shaping moved to the skirt as well. The Met’s collection has an American crinoline, a framed underskirt of metal and cotton, from about 1860, and American bustles of linen and metal from the 1880s. A silk corset by the Paris maker Maison Léoty, dated 1891, shows how refined corset-making had become by the end of the century. Nineteenth-century physicians campaigned against tight lacing and what they called unhygienic dress, as a 1993 history of Swedish doctors’ efforts describes, and its effects can still turn up: a 1985 report in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology described four patients with “corset liver,” a rare benign change in the shape of the liver that was at first mistaken for a tumor.

1900s to 1940s: cinchers and girdles

The 20th century softened the frame but kept the squeeze. The Met holds an American waist cincher of silk and whalebone from 1900 to 1910, and girdles from the 1920s: one of silk from 1924, and a French girdle of silk, rubber and metal from about 1925. A waist cincher by the Royal Worcester Corset Company dates from about 1939, and an American girdle of rayon, cotton and rubber from about 1940. Brassieres appear in the collection from the 1920s.

Date (Met record)	Garment	Made of
Late 1760s	Corset, French	Silk, linen, leather, wood, baleen
1825-1835	Stays, American	Cotton
About 1860	Crinoline, American	Metal, cotton
About 1885	Bustle, American	Linen, metal
1891	Corset, Maison Léoty (Paris)	Silk
1900-1910	Waist cincher, American	Silk, whalebone
About 1925	Girdle, French	Silk, rubber, metal
About 1940	Girdle, American	Rayon, cotton, rubber
1990-1997	Girdle, Playtex (American)	Cotton, nylon, elastic

1990s to today: stretch shapewear and “slimming” claims

By the 1990s, girdles in the Met’s collection were made of nylon and elastic, by brands such as Playtex and Papillon, and the late-20th-century waist cinchers there are elastic and synthetic fiber. Modern shapewear works the same way, with firm stretch fabric that smooths and compresses. What it can’t do is remove fat. In 2014, two makers of caffeine-infused shapewear paid about $1.5 million to settle FTC charges that their garments’ claims to slim thighs, reduce cellulite and destroy fat cells were false and unsupported.

The waist trainer, a modern corset worn for hours a day, brought back old worries. The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery has said waist trainers don’t reduce belly fat or cause weight loss, can make breathing harder and may weaken core muscles with long-term wear. In a 2017 study in Gastroenterology, a tight belt around the waist increased acid reflux after a meal about eightfold in people prone to reflux. Our waist trainer guide covers the evidence, and our tummy-control shapewear picks and compression leggings picks focus on comfort and fit rather than slimming promises.

1921 to 1992: surgeons learn to remove fat

The first attempts to reshape the body with surgery went badly. A 2017 review in Annals of Medicine and Surgery recounts that in 1921, French surgeon Charles Dujarrier removed skin and tissue to reshape a dancer’s knees and ankles; too much tissue was removed and the closure was too tight, and the result was tissue death and amputation. Later attempts removed fat and skin together, with frequent complications. In 1972, German surgeon Schrudde described a less invasive method that scraped out fat with a small surgical instrument through a short incision.

Modern liposuction, the same review says, was developed in 1975 by father-and-son surgeons Arpad and Giorgio Fischer, at first only for the outer thighs. In 1977, Paris surgeon Yves-Gérard Illouz modified the equipment and extended the method to the whole body, and in 1983 he reported his five-year experience with more than 3,000 cases in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. In 1987, California dermatologist Jeffrey Klein described tumescent anesthesia, large volumes of very dilute numbing fluid that allowed liposuction under local anesthesia with much less bleeding. Ultrasonic liposuction followed in Italy in 1992. Today, liposuction is the most common cosmetic operation in the United States: ASPS member surgeons reported 317,196 procedures in 2025, about the same as the year before, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Our liposuction guide explains what it involves.

2008 to 2010: freezing fat, from popsicles to the FDA

Doctors had long known that cold can inflame fat; pediatric journals have described “popsicle panniculitis” in young children. In 2008, Harvard researchers led by Dieter Manstein reported in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine that cooling the skin of pigs to just below freezing for 10 minutes caused a gradual loss of several millimeters of fat over the 3.5-month study. They called it selective cryolysis.

On August 24, 2010, the FDA granted ZELTIQ’s De Novo request for its dermal cooling device, as an aesthetic treatment to affect the appearance of the flanks (love handles). That decision created a new device type, and the CoolSculpting name and newer models followed through many later clearances; the CoolSculpting Elite clearance of 2024 lists areas from the upper arms and abdomen to the thighs and under the chin. The ASPS says cryolipolysis reduces fat in a treated area by about 20% on average, with results over several months. In 2015 the FDA approved Kybella (deoxycholic acid), an injection for fat under the chin. See our guides to cryolipolysis (fat freezing) and Kybella, and our comparison of liposuction vs cryolipolysis.

Interest has moved in waves. ASPS member surgeons reported 682,932 non-surgical fat reduction procedures in 2022 and 745,967 in 2023, then 447,581 in 2024, a 40% drop. The ASPS reports don’t give a reason, and we don’t guess one here. Our non-surgical fat reduction comparison puts fat freezing, muscle stimulation, radiofrequency, laser and ultrasound side by side.

682,9322022

745,9672023

447,5812024

Non-surgical fat reduction procedures reported by U.S. plastic surgeons

Item	Value
2022	682,932
2023	745,967
2024	447,581

Counts are ASPS estimates from member surveys; the 2025 report lists top procedures without this count.

Source: American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2023 and 2024 Procedural Statistics Releases (archived copies) (checked on October 7, 2026)

The 2020s: shaping after major weight loss

The newest chapter is about the body after weight loss rather than instead of it. As GLP-1 medicines helped many people lose large amounts of weight, more of them began asking surgeons about loose skin. In its 2025 report, the ASPS said lift procedures across the body grew significantly and that 82% of its member surgeons had received consultation requests related to GLP-1 use. Tummy tucks ranked as the third most common cosmetic surgery, with 173,251 procedures. The ASPS describes patients as seeking “restoration, not transformation.”

This marks a real change in the story. For most of history, shaping was a way to look slimmer without losing weight. Today it is often the last step after weight loss, used to remove skin that diet, exercise or medicine can’t tighten. The ASPS has called lifts contouring tools, not weight-loss procedures, and the ASPS says a tummy tuck, which removes excess fat and skin and in most cases restores weakened or separated muscles, is not a substitute for weight loss. If you are on that path, our guides to loose skin after weight loss and the tummy tuck explain the options and timing, and the GLP-1 medications guide covers the medicines driving the trend.

The thread through 250 years: shape is not weight

From whalebone to cold plates, body shaping has always worked on the outline, not the scale. The FDA says plainly that non-invasive body contouring will not result in weight loss, and does not treat obesity or improve health. Liposuction removes a limited amount of fat from chosen areas; the ASPS says it is not a treatment for obesity or a substitute for proper diet and exercise. Shapewear changes how clothes sit for the hours you wear it. Each can help some people feel more comfortable, and that is a fair reason to choose them, as long as the expectations are honest.

If you are thinking about a procedure, our questions to ask before body contouring will help in a consultation. For a broader look at how we see our bodies, see body image. The history of body shaping also overlaps with outright hoaxes, from “reducing” soaps to sweat suits, which we cover in weight-loss hoaxes in history.