Getting the hourglass figure to rock that slinky evening dress or fit in your skinny jeans used to require weeks of dieting and working out. So, where do you start? What sort of shapewear should you buy?
It all depends on your outlook on yourself and the outfit you wear. Shapewear is all about making you feel better so that when you look in the mirror, your muffin top isn’t bulging above your jeans so that your butt isn’t non-existent in your nice little pencil skirt. So that, your panties don’t look like you’ve been hung, drawn, and quartered with lines separating your body.
Important factors: shapewear is designed to support and control, so it is very important to pick the right size (no deceiving yourself, no picking the size below!).
You want to be comfortable – let’s face it you have to breathe in this outfit, so consider the fabric and degree of lycra involved.
Shapewear comes in different levels of support, from light control to firm control, and you don’t have to sacrifice comfort just because you want firm control shapewear. Read reviews for the product, and let real women tell you about their experiences before you buy.
We all have problem areas that shapewear can help. So let’s give you some guidelines by setting out what items help in which areas:
What is Shapewear?
Shapewear is an undergarment designed to alter your body shape to achieve a trimmer figure temporarily. It has come a long way from that barely breathable waist shapewear or shapewear corsets you see in period films. Modern shapewear emphasizes comfort and effective shaping, as evidenced by various garments shaping.
Whether you need a body shapewear for overall slimming or a shaper that targets a particular problem area like your hips or thighs, there is a shaping garment for you. Popular shapewear types include:
- Compression and post-surgery garments
- Body shapewear and briefers
- Girdles and control panties
- Control shapewear like slips and camisoles
- Waist shapewear, cinchers, and nippers
How Shapewear Works
Most control shapewear work by compressing and shaping your body using restricted stretch fabric blends like Powernet or boning. Waist shapewear, for example, uses both. Depending on design and material, a shaper can offer light, moderate, firm, or extra control.
With the right shapewear, you can:
- Shape problem areas like thighs and butt
- Highlight your assets by whittling your waist
- Smooth out bulges for a smoother silhouette
- Provide extra lift and support for your breasts
- Correct your posture, so you stand taller.
Some shapewear garments even assist in weight loss with regular and prolonged use. Why don’t you check out WOW Shapers’s seamless shapewear collection today to see what it can do for you?
Why Buy Shapewear?
Shapewear is no longer limited to a specific demographic, trying to look thinner. Women of all sizes wear shapewear as the perfect finishing piece under any outfit. It can do everything from smooth to shrink, lift, and shape. Shapewear can provide the following:
- Eliminate visible panty lines and provide a perfect finish underneath clothes.
- Smooth bulges and create a more toned silhouette.
- Engineered knitting and fabrication emphasize the figure in certain areas and provide additional support, while at the same time minimizing in other areas.
- Posturewear – shapewear technologies include compression, which aids in improving circulation and reducing muscle movements, varicose veins, and keeping muscles warm.
- Specific uses include support garments that can be used after childbirth or other surgeries.
Compression Garments: Better Shaping and Faster Healing
If you have undergone surgery, you know how painful it feels when you move – whether you are moving the injured area or not. Your muscles throb relentlessly; you sweat with the discomfort and feel a sharp sting with your every move.
You can suffer in silence, or you can reduce and minimize pain by using compression garments.
Compression Garments 101
A compression garment is designed to help improve and increase blood circulation, eliminate potentially harmful fluids from your system, decrease post-surgery recovery time, and reduce swelling.
With restricted stretch fabric and, possibly, boning, post-surgical shapewear uses garment compression to limit the movement of the sutured areas to reduce pain.
Nowadays, compression garments can also be used for shaping your body and trimming off extra inches around your waist, hips, rear, and thighs. Garment compression can target a specific or big area, depending on your garment style.
Compression Garment Styles
Choosing a compression garment style depends on your healing and shaping needs. Some shapewear offers more garment compression than others, so you might want to check for the degree of control offered.
- Post-surgery bras.
- Ideal for breast surgery. These bras often have convenient front closures, wide side panels, and cushioned bands to provide extra support. Most bra styles may be used as leisure bras after you recover.
- Body briefers.
- It is ideal for long-sutured areas in your abdomen, back, or legs. Firm garment compression keeps your thighs and midsection from jiggling, which may trigger pain.
- Waist cinchers.
- It is ideal for abdominal sutures and post-liposuction. These shapers keep steady to avoid jarring sutures. These waist-shapewear garments are also great for shaping your tummy area.
Control Camisoles: Get Your Top On
Have you ever worn a form-fitting top only to pull it off because the bulges seem to pop under your shirt? Or have you tried wearing a sheer shirt but ditched it because the sheerness shows your bulging silhouette?
If you answered yes to both questions, you need a control camisole.
Control Camisoles: Reasons to Get Them
Control camisoles are like tank tops – comfy, but with much more support and shaping capabilities. These control top camisoles are made of restricted stretch fabrics and are great for smoothing out midsection and back flab.
If you’re still not sold on the idea of control camisoles, here are more reasons to get them:
You get a lifted, naturally shaped bust.
Most have built-in bras. And we don’t mean just any bra. Most control camis have molded cups and underwire to lift and shape your breasts for a perkier appearance.
Your midsection bulges disappear.
It may only be temporary, but as long as your control cami is on, your belly rolls and love handles are restrained and compressed for a smoother silhouette.
Your back flab goes bye-bye.
Those rolls of fat on your back disappear under a control top camisole. So you can wear your knits and clingy tops without looking like you have a lifesaver under them.
Your hips get streamlined.
With a control cami, your hips don’t jut out disproportionately from your body but are streamlined to contribute to a shapelier, curvier figure.
You can use them as a layering piece.
Using your cardigan or jacket as a top, use these control camis as your base layer for a shapelier and more fashionable figure.
Why Get A Control Slip?
Control slips, also called shapewear underwear, are designed to be worn under dresses and skirts. They reshape your figure by smoothing out bulges so you’ll have a trimmer-looking silhouette without added bumps and creases.
Enjoy the following benefits with a control body slip:
- Flab controls whether you wear a dress or a skirt.
- A control slip may have a built-in underwire bra or contour cups to lift and shape your breasts. All styles trim your waist, tummy, hips, and thighs for a smooth and curvy figure.
- A body control slip also contributes to a lifted rear.
- A variety of styles to suit your needs.
- Control slips can be like a fitted chemise or like an open-bottom girdle. Chemise-style body control slips are ideal for under mid-thigh dresses and floor-length numbers. Girdle-style slips are best under skirts of varying lengths.
- Convenient restroom breaks
- Since control slips are open at the bottom, they are very convenient when you need a restroom break. You don’t have to do complicated shimmies before doing your business. Roll the garment up or zip it down.
When ordering your control slips, it’s best to have your measurements on hand. Your weight, underbust, and hip measurements are needed to determine the right size.
Body Shapers: When You Need to Get in Shape Fast
Real beauty is what’s on the inside as the popular saying goes. But it’s hard to see beauty when your love handles overspill from your jeans. Your tummy stretches your sweater, or your waist meld with your bust. It is disheartening to dress up only to have people notice your size, not your style.
Exercise can give you results. But while waiting for those results, do yourself a favor and get in shape now with body shapers.
What Are Body Shapers?
A body shaper is a shaping garment designed to trim your torso and lower body parts. Most body shaper styles trim and shape the waist, tummy, hips, rear, and thighs. Some styles, like body briefers, have vest-style options to eliminate back fat so you look smooth.
Some body shapers shape your arms and those with built-in bras for total body shaping.
Choose Your Body Shaper
If you are unsure which shaper to get, check out the guide below for some quick tips:
To tone your body just a little: If you are one of those lucky souls who only need to tame a few stubborn pounds, a light control body briefer or shaper can trim you right up.
To shape a bulging tummy and thick waist: For a midsection that’s a little too thick to be sexy, a body shaper like a bodysuit or high waist girdle can tuck you in.
To get rid of thunder thighs and hips: Get rid of jiggling thighs and too-big hips with long legs or Capri-style body briefers. These compress your leg fat, so you instantly get firmer-looking thighs and shapelier hips.
Maternity Girdles: Look Fab with Your Bump
Pregnancy is a time of joy. But it can be hard to celebrate when you’re left feeling like a huge blimp on the face of the earth. Those toned abs you worked so hard for are gone, and you’re left with a baby bump and back pain.
Avoid that scenario and look as fab as you did pre-pregnancy with maternity girdles.
Why Maternity Girdles?
A maternity girdle is a shapewear designed to support your growing tummy, relieve back pain, and regain your pre-pregnancy shape. They do double duty by keeping you in shape and supporting your bump.
Growing Belly Boost
Maternity girdles provide support to keep your baby bump lifted without compression. Usually made of restricted stretch material like Lycra, a maternity girdle’s front panel expands to accommodate your growing size. This way, your baby’s free to grow without the danger of compression that non-maternity shapewear may give.
Back Pain Relief
As your belly grows, the extra weight adds pressure to your spine and causes pain. Maternity shapewear is designed to lift your belly and take the pressure off your spine. The added support from a maternity girdle relieves back pain as your weight is evenly distributed.
Preserve Pre-Pregnancy Shape
Even if you’re pregnant, your abs remain under the bump. Maternity girdles keep your skin and muscles from losing their tone and elasticity so they won’t sag when the baby’s out. Firmer and suppler muscles hold better against the wear and tear of an expanding belly.
To make up for your abs, pregnancy also gives you a rounder backside. A maternity girdle lets you make the most of it by lifting your rear and shaping your hips for a new, shapelier bottom.
Open Bottom Girdles: Your Secret to Comfy Shaping
Shaping up with shapewear is a good idea, especially if you only need to tuck in a few extra inches to look great. But really, who wants to shimmy into a tight bodysuit when the weather’s too hot?
You don’t have to sacrifice a bulge-free figure for those days when it’s just too hot to bother with a full-on bodysuit. With open-bottom girdles, you’ll get the shaping you want to look hot without feeling the heat.
The Open Bottom Girdle Advantage
An open-bottom girdle is a shapewear style that resembles a fitted mini skirt. They often have reinforced front panels that shape and trim your tummy. Depending on the design and material, an open bottom girdle can give you light, moderate, firm, or extra firm control.
- Open bottom girdles control lower body flab.
- Open bottom girdles shape your waist, tummy, hips, rear, and outer thighs for a smoother figure. These girdles are often made with restricted stretch fabric with reinforced panels or bone-in seams to keep your excess inches comfortably shaped and smooth.
- Open-bottom girdles give you fashion options.
- Some girdles may be designed like a control slip, ideal for dresses – only with a higher degree of control. Some open-bottom girdle styles may also have attached garters so you can wear and secure your stockings if you want to for a sleeker and more polished appearance.
- Open-bottom girdles offer comfort and convenience.
- This girdle allows for increased ventilation, so you stay fresher longer. Restroom breaks are also a cinch since you can remove the garment without disrobing entirely. Or if the design permits, you can roll the girdle up.
Padded Panties: Pump Up Your Rump
Trends come and go, but a beautiful, rounded, lifted derriere is always in style. Think Beyonce, Shakira, or even J. Lo. It may be half-good genes and half-hard work, but those serious booties scream sexy.
If your rump has lost its plumpness, you can do hundreds of squats daily to shape it up.
Or you can slip on a pair of padded panties and get serious booty without the heavy sweating.
What are Padded Panties?
Padded panties are light to moderate control panties that flatten your tummy and streamline your hips with the added benefit of padding to make your butt appear rounder and shapelier.
A padded panty usually has discreet pockets with removable padding inside. These pads mimic your backside’s natural shape. Some styles even have hip pockets to proportionate your hips to your new, improved rump. These pads are removable so you can wash the panties without the padding.
What to Wear with Padded Panties?
A padded panty can spell all the difference if you haven’t felt comfortable wearing jeans or knits before. Wear padded panties and rock these looks:
Jeans and shorts
Go casual and sexy in figure-hugging jeans and shorts. A padded panty will give your denim and khakis something to cling to for a curvy figure.
Knits
Whether it’s a knit dress, leggings long sweater, jacket, or cardigan, you can look fab in this usually unforgiving material with padded panties. Most padded panty styles are seamless, so you’ll look smooth and shapely under your clothes.
Dresses and skirts
Dresss and skirts look more flattering if they have something to skim over. Padded panties lift and shape your backside, which makes for a flattering silhouette.
Plus Size Shapewear: Show Off Your Curves
Skinny models may rule the runway, but off it, people want curves. They want cleavage, hips, and rounded backsides. Some will go under the knife to get the curves they want. They want those curves full-figured women have in abundance.
Curves are wonderful, so don’t hide them in baggy clothes and shapeless fashions. Show off your curves in plus-size shapewear highlighting your assets and controlling your shape.
Reasons to Get Plus Size Shapewear
Women’s plus size shapewear also meets fashion requirements and the health needs of full figures. With shapewear for plus-size women, you will benefit from:
- Custom, comfortable shaping. Women’s plus-size shapewear is made for fuller figures. They are cut more generously than regular shapewear to accommodate your curves. This results in a comfortably shaped, slimmer figure instead of being unflatteringly squeezed.
- Slimmer, more proportionate shape. You can get an hourglass figure with women’s plus-size shapewear. Bodysuits, girdles, and waist cinchers are great for whittling your waist, taming your tummy, lifting your bust, and shaping your hips and backside.
- Back support and posture correction. Top-heavy women may suffer from back pain due to the extra weight. There are plus-size shapewear styles like back support vests, vest-style body briefers, waist cinchers, and camisoles that can relieve the pressure from your spine, helping you achieve better posture.
With the right shapewear, you can wear form-fitting clothes without worrying about bulges. Look like a curvy supermodel today by checking out a wide range of shapewear in the plus-size women’s collection.
Panty Girdles: Love It or Love It
Call it by any other name – control panty, control brief, shapewear panty – but panty girdles are the number one choice of most women regarding foundation garments.
Far from its 30’s era perforated rubber ancestors, modern panty girdles offer you comfortable shaping. Usually made of stretch materials like Lycra, Spandex, or polyester, modern panty girdles are more flexible and lighter, making them comfortable for daily wear.
Wear a panty girdle to…
- Tuck your tummy.
- Don’t let the simple construction fool you because panty girdles can offer light to extra firm control. Reinforced tummy panels and gussets can control and keep your protruding middle under control. Depending on the rise of your panty girdle, it can tuck in your whole tummy or lower belly.
- Shape your waist.
- Some panty girdle styles rise to the waist or meet your bra band. The extent of this shaping results in a trimmer midsection, particularly, a smaller, shapelier waist.
- Eliminate saddlebags.
- A panty girdle, regardless of style, covers your hips. The restricted stretch fabric and, at times, boning work together to keep those extra hip flaps in control for a streamlined figure.
- Tone your thighs.
- Long-leg panty girdles are great for keeping thigh flab immobile and in control. This way, your thighs will look leaner and more toned.
- Lift your rear.
- Panty girdles keep your thighs and hips in control. This results in a firmer and toned-looking derriere. Some panty girdles also have padding to mimic and enhance your butt’s natural shape.
Some panty girdle styles are ideal for pregnancy and post-pregnancy shaping. These panty girdles support your changing size and keep you in shape.
Postpartum Girdles: Battling the Baby Bulge
Nothing is more exciting than getting pregnant and noticing you show up one day. It’s like an “aha” and “eureka” moment. That visible bulge is like the final confirmation that you are pregnant.
However, if you’re still showing but the baby’s out, it’s time to pull on your postpartum girdles.
Why You Need Postpartum Girdles
A postpartum girdle is a foundation garment designed to help women recover better and heal faster after pregnancy. Usually made of restricted stretch fabric and boning in some, postpartum girdles will soon be your go-to buddy post-pregnancy.
Postpartum girdles help you heal faster.
Whether you had a C-section or normal delivery, your muscles are beaten on the inside. A postpartum girdle will improve your blood circulation, keep your muscles or suture from being moved too much, and promote faster cell repair.
A postpartum girdle helps you recover your muscle tone.
When pregnant, your body – muscles, and skin – stretches to accommodate your growing baby. You may also put on a few pounds. When the baby’s out, you may be left with rolls of fat, loose skin, and unsightly stretch marks. A postpartum girdle will compress these loose muscles to improve their elasticity and tone.
Postpartum girdles give you a slimmer figure.
It may take a while before your figure returns to its trim pre-pregnancy shape, but you don’t have to sport your post-baby bulge if you don’t want to. Postpartum girdles, depending on cut and style, can shape your body. They can lift your breasts, trim your waist, lift your rear, shape your hips, and tone your thighs.
Waist Cinchers: Score an Easy Hourglass Shape
An hourglass shape is considered the ideal figure. If not, then why would people want bigger hips or bigger busts? Every fashion tip will tell you to balance your figure regardless of shape. If you’re top-heavy, an illusion of a fuller bottom is what you need. If you’re bottom-heavy, you need to boost your bust line.
If you’re confused about the rules to getting a perfect hourglass shape, stick to one: Wear waist cinchers.
What are Waist Cinchers?
A waist cincher is similar to a corset – only more comfortable and modern. Unlike the full-on boning and lace-up corsets of the past, a modern waist nipper or cincher is made of restricted stretch shaping fabric with reinforced panels and hook and eye or zippered closure. Depending on the degree of control it offers – light, moderate, firm, or extra firm – a waist cincher may also have flexible but still rigid boning.
Waist nippers also come in various styles to suit your shaping needs.
- Regular waist cinchers. If you only need to shape your waist and tummy, a regular waist nipper will do. It will compress your tummy while side panels tuck your waist in for an instant hourglass shape. As a bonus, waist cinchers improve your posture and lift your breasts.
- Vest waist cinchers.This one’s ideal if you have excess back fat. This waist-nipper style can eliminate bulging wings by shaping your upper back.
- Post-surgery waist nippers. Waist cinchers can stabilize your midsection and reduce pain caused by movement. They also improve your blood circulation so your muscles heal faster and better.
I can’t tell you how much body shapers and shapewear can really be your wardrobe’s helping hand.
Every woman should have at least one item in their drawer. A secret that’s just priceless when you want to look 10 pounds lighter in an instant!
Iskra Banović is our seasoned Editor-in-Chief at Blufashion. She has been steering the website’s content and editorial direction since 2018. With a rich background in fashion design, Iskra’s expertise spans across fashion, interior design, beauty, lifestyle, travel, and culture.
