Corsets: An exhibit in restraint

NEW YORK (CNN) -- These days we diet, do sit-ups or get plastic surgery to have a more shapely figure. But for 400 years, the preferred method for women -- and some men -- was to lace up a corset.

An exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan is paying tribute to an item some swore by -- and others swore at.

CNN's Jeanne Moos squeezed a peek at "The Corset: Fashioning the Body."