完美女性身材（上）
Fashion has long seen the female body as a malleable entity, something to be moulded according to the dictates of complex social codes or the fickle whims of the fashion industry.
时尚界长久以来都把女性身体当作可以塑造的物体，它可以根据复杂的社会规范和变幻无常的时尚业眼光而进行塑造。
By analysing the changing fashionable silhouette from the 18th Century to the present day, a new exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York (FIT) argues that the fashionable body has always been a cultural construct and one that needs to be challenged if we are to reach a greater acceptance of body diversity.
通过分析从18世纪到如今的时尚身材剪影变化，美国纽约时装学院（FIT）的一次最新展出提出了女性身体可以作为文化概念的代表和可以不断突破审美局限变得更加多元化的载体。
In the 18th Century the notion of a fashionable body was of concern primarily to the elite.
在18实际，时尚的身材的理念是社会名流们的专享。The wearing of stays (laced underbodice) was considered essential, but as curator Emma McClendon points out, this was not simply to make the wearer appear more slender.
穿着蕾丝花边的紧身马甲被认为是必须的，但作为展览策划者，艾玛.麦克克林顿指出，这不仅仅是为了显得更苗条。
Their widespread use was, she explains, “much more complex and related to cultural notions of propriety, class and a woman’s physicality.”
它们的流行使用其实是，她解释道，“更为复杂的，与社会上的财富和阶级以及女性的物化有关。”
Being ensconced in stays created a uniquely rigid carriage.
被紧身马甲束缚住后会形成独特的固定的身形。
By mastering an elegant gait whilst constrained in such an uncomfortable garment was a sign of breeding.
掌握优雅的步法同时被拘束在这种不舒服的衣服内是血统的象征。
“There was also a prevailing belief during the period that women’s bodies were inherently weak and in need of support,” says McClendon.
“同时那时还流行着这样的想法，认为女性的身体天生娇弱，需要这种支持，”麦克克林顿说。
These ideas were challenged by some of the leading writers and thinkers of the day, with the philosopher and writer Rousseau seeing stays as a particularly apt metaphor for the social institutions constraining the individual - but his views had little impact.
这种想法受到了当时的先锋作家和思想家的质疑，哲学家和作家卢梭就把紧身马甲看作是社会制度压抑个人的象征—但是他的观点影响力不大。
It wasn’t until the aftermath of the French Revolution, when appearing aristocratic was decidedly frowned upon, that stays briefly lost their hold on the female imagination as they embraced the more forgiving, high-waisted empire line.
直到法国大革命后期，贵族式的穿着被人们深恶痛绝，紧身马甲才慢慢淡出女性的视线，因为它们象征着皇族的高腰设计。
However, even then some form of support garment would be worn.
不过，即便是那时一些支撑性的服装仍然有人穿。
The return to a nipped-in waist, shown to its best advantage by the voluminous crinoline, in vogue from 1845 to 1870, drew attention to the upper body, which was considered “the most precious,” according to Denis Bruna, curator of the fashion department of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
紧身的腰部设计的回归，通过庞大的衬裙来凸显，发生于1845到1870年，把注意力集中到了上半身，人们认为这里更可贵，丹妮丝.布鲁纳这么说，她是巴黎的装饰艺术博物馆时尚部主管。
“In Western culture the lower parts of the body are not considered worthy, which is why women’s legs have been hidden for centuries under skirts and petticoats.”
“西方文化中下半身被认为不那么重要，所以女性们的腿部长达百年的时间里都藏在裙子或衬裙下面。”
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