Over the years, women have adopted extreme fashions to convey wealth and status. Fanny Johnstone looks at history’s most torturous trends.

Bantering with a journalist from the lads’ mag FHM last year, Jenson Button was asked his opinion of women racing drivers. ”You wouldn’t want to be on the circuit with them, would you?” he said. ”A girl with big boobs would never be comfortable in the car. And the mechanics wouldn’t concentrate. Can you imagine strapping her in?”