IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to look at daguerreotypes of nineteenth-century Australian women in their hats and heavy, long dresses without wondering how they managed to wear all those clothes in the summer heat. Or when enduring a heavy period or a hot flush. Poor things.

The standard daywear of an elegant, upper middle-class Victorian lady consisted of laced petticoats, high stiff collars, padding, boned lining, frills, bows, buttons, bonnets, veils and corsets: attire that would have required daily stoicism and self-control to tolerate.