1. See Through togas De rigueur in Emperor Nero's Rome, these diaphanous garments, exposing both the breasts and the genitals, left nothing to the imagination. Complained the Roman philosopher Seneca, "Our women have nothing left to reveal to their lovers

1. See Through togas

De rigueur in Emperor Nero's Rome, these diaphanous garments, exposing both the breasts and the genitals, left nothing to the imagination. Complained the Roman philosopher Seneca, "Our women have nothing left to reveal to their lovers in the bedroom that they have not already shown on the street."

2. The Codpiece
In 1482, King Edward IV introduced a law that forbade persons below the rank of lord to expose their private parts in public. The answer was the essential fashion accessory (pictured, right) for Renaissance men, cut to fit snugly around the male member like the finger of a glove. Fifteenth-century fashion critics were not impressed. Michel de Montaigne sniffed, "What is the purpose of that monstrosity that we to this day have fixed to our trousers, and often which is worse, it is beyond its natural size through falseness and imposture."

The following is an excerpt from Karl Shaw's 5 People Who Died During Sex (Broadway Books), in bookstores now.

3. Exposed Genitals

The best-dressed gentleman around medieval England exposed his naked genitals below a short-fitting tunic. If the genitals didn't hang low enough, a chap could wear padded flesh-colored falsies, called "braquettes."

4. Flea Cravats
These (pictured, right) were designed to catch Pulex irritans, also called the human flea, and were worn for about 200 years from the fourteenth century onward by Renaissance ladies. The furry human flea collars were removed and shaken out to lessen the chance of fleas coming into contact with the rest of their clothing.

5. Bound Feet

According to one of several versions of the story, the Chinese fetish for foot-binding (pictured, above), designed literally to keep women in their place, dates from the thirteenth century with the Empress Taki, who was born with a clubfoot. Her courtiers took to binding their own feet in cloth in imitation, and soon small, tightly bound designer feet became highly desirable in Chinese women, even though bound toes were likely to become gangrenous. Chinese husbands, meanwhile, encouraged foot-binding because their crippled wives were less likely to run off. Foot-binding was officially abolished by Chairman Mao in 1949.

6. False Eyebrows
These became highly desirable among eighteenth century men and women, who wore sets of eyebrows, cut from mouse skin and stuck on with fish glue, to make them appear fashionably surprised.

7. The Prince Albert

Queen Victoria's consort (pictured, right) gave his name to a form of body piercing, once popular amongst Victorian gentlemen. In order to maintain a perfectly smooth trouser line of the tight trousers that were fashionable at the time, Albert allegedly wore a ring through his penis, which was then strapped to his thigh.

8. Soliman's Water
This was the sixteenth-century facelift, guaranteed to eliminate spots, freckles, and warts. Unfortunately, the application of a blowtorch to your face would have had similar consequences, as the chief ingredient of this top selling lotion was mercury, which burned away the outer layers of skin and corroded the flesh underneath. Another side effect was that teeth fell out even more quickly than was usual at the time.

9. Hair Removal By Irradiation

An indispensable item in the best North American beauty parlors in the 1920s was the recently invented X-ray machine, employed to remove unwanted facial and body hair. Other treatments available included radioactive face creams to lighten the skin and radioactive toothpaste for whiter teeth and better digestion, after which the customer could enjoy a radium-laced chocolate bar. As recently as 1953, a company in Denver was promoting a radium-based contraceptive jelly.

10. Colored Teeth
Sixteenth-century Italian ladies colored their teeth red or green. Russian women, however, always dyed theirs black.