"A la mujer, el hombre la ha de hacer"

The authors address the phenomenon of fashion and its relationship with the body of women in the 19th century, a determining aspect of the social role that corresponded to them within a patriarchal society. They analyze the practices and ways in which (unconsciously) 19th century upper-class women of Mexico molded their bodies into garments that became an extension of their skin, focusing on how lingerie -designed by men- constrained female bodies so that they could look slender in those beautiful but bulky dresses that made women look like objects of ornamentation. Mexican women of the bourgeois "well-to-do", "affluent" class that had to take care of their bodies and dress them "for the other" were more concerned with appearance than functionality as they were frequently exposed to the social gaze. For this, the authors use Foucault's conceptions of the body and the restrictions that power imposes.