These cartoon silhouettes are very expressive, but did people really look like this? Did the typical gentleman wear a corset? Did he train his waist in? Did the chest billow out like that? Did the shoulders slope?

Or did they look rather like today, but with some pleats in the tails and a snug buttoning at the waist?

These are, of course, the ideal, like any fashion plate, antique or modern. Does Abercrombie and Fitch show us your average dude? Does anybody REALLY dress like the guys in the Hugo Boss ads? Wealthy people and celebrities maybe. The theme trickles down to the street eventually.

Fashionable gentlemen did wear corsets well into the century, but the clothes were cut to emphasize certain lines. If you were to undress these figures, they wouldn't look significantly different from your average (ideal) body.

The collars are stiffened and padded, the shoulders are cut way down and back, affecting the posture, the line of the waistcoat collar and the cravat add to the pigeonbreasted illusion, the waistlines are high, the line of the trousers are pegged.

Compare and contrast the modern "urban" male silhouette, with the trousers cut very loosely and generously with the waistline just below the buttocks, while the shirts and jackets are cut very long to elongate the torso, creating a shapeless, slouching, vaguely gorilla-like theme.