The rear has been the focus of fashion since the 19th century when the highly fashionable bustle highlighted and exaggerated the form of female bottom. But it was the 1940's and 50's before the rear really came into its own,thanks to Betty Grable, Marylyn Monroe and Jane Russel- and a full, rounded rear view.

It was all change in the 1960's with a smaller, neater rear popularized by 'Twiggy' and Jean 'The Shrimp' Shrimpton.The 1970's and 80's brought with them a gradual increase in the size of fashionable rears until the 1990's when health and fitness became a major fashion influence-slimmer and trimmer being the key ambitions of the fashion conscious.

While the fitness theme has continued, the fashionable female rear now reflects a more womanly shape, with rounded curves replacing the slightly exaggerated muscle definition popularised by a number of international female celebrities. Fashion follows an evolutionary pattern and when, as a results of intensive exercise regimes, the female gluteus maximus [the largest and most superficial of the buttock muscles] starts to closely resemble that of the male, the inevitable response will be a more rounded female rear. The male rear can then retain it's muscle definition in direct contrast.

Actress Shobna Gulati and singer/actor John Barrowman typify the current look