5 Unexpected Things You Didn't Know About Shapewear

5 Unexpected Things You Didn’t Know About Shapewear : Without a doubt, the biggest, most enduring clothing trend of the past decade has been the popularization of body shapers and shapewear for women. Today, virtually every woman in America from 16 to 65 has at least one piece that could be defined as shapewear.

Shapewear was practically absent in most people’s closets 20 years ago, as most women rejected the uncomfortable corsets and underwire variants that existed. Thanks to modern technology, however, shapewear is now more comfortable than ever, and the perfect silhouette no longer requires a trip to the plastic surgeon or thousands of hours at the gym.

Love them or hate them, shapewear is indeed here to stay. In this article, we’ll share a few unexpected facts you might not have known about these now-essential undergarments.

Shapewear Has Been Around for Thousands of Years

Modern shapewear is just the latest evolution in “foundation garments,” which are types of clothing worn under visible layers and are meant to shape the body in a certain way.

Foundation garments cover a wide variety of underclothes, including bras, corsets, and girdles, all of which are attested to for almost as far back as there has been a women’s clothing industry.

Roman frescoes and Ancient Chinese art demonstrate that tight bandeaus and similar types of shaping garments were already in existence thousands of years ago. In the European Medieval and Renaissance periods, bodices and corsets were at certain points standard with some classes of women.

In modern contexts, shapewear for women (often incorrectly called “spanx,” after the popular brand), has had mainstream popularity in the late 2000s through to the present day. This is after decades of being out-of-favor with the wider public.

Modern elastic shapewear has little in common with uncomfortable old-school corsets and bullet bras, however. Rather than using rigid supports, modern shapewear uses sophisticated materials and a better understanding of biomechanics to allow users to remain comfortable while allowing them to present the desired silhouette.

You Can Pee in Shapewear. Kind f.

If you’re a guy and you’ve wondered why the lines to women’s restrooms have gotten longer with time— well, there are a lot of reasons. But shapewear’s popularity is one of them.

A lot of earlier types of modern shapewear, and even a good proportion of the types available today, are made much like one-piece swimsuits. This means going to the bathroom in them can be a challenge. For this reason, some women choose to take off both their outer clothes and shapewear in bathroom stalls. Others improvise or forgo shapewear entirely.

This is now a widely recognized problem, and there are now many types of shapewear that aim to make going to the bathroom less of a problem. They do this by adding snap or velcro closures and other similar systems. There are also crotchless versions, which enable doing “number one” by moving one’s undies to the side or by going commando.

The specifics of these solutions are highly variable and can also involve a bit of skill and luck to avoid spillage. There are even tools marketed specifically to solve this problem and dealing with this aspect of shapewear is a much-discussed topic online. While this is all well and good, a solution for “number two” that doesn’t involve taking everything off is still mostly open for innovation.

A Good Fit Is Essential — for Health Reasons

Overly tight shapewear can cause serious nerve damage that may even be irreversible in many cases. If wearing something causes you discomfort, whether it’s shapewear, skinny jeans, or tights, it’s best to find a product that fits better or avoid wearing the piece daily.

Good Shapewear Takes Advantage of How Our Bodies Work

The concept behind modern shapewear for women is simple. Shapewear works by pushing excess fat towards areas where they would be more flattering to the wearer, much in the same way that you could do the same when you move flab around with your hands.

On the other hand, creating a good set requires a lot of engineering and biomechanics know-how. Good shapewear combines different materials and an understanding of where the body fat could be safely (and flatteringly) compressed to create a product that’s both safe and confidence-building.

Shapewear Isn’t Just for Cocktail Dresses

Shapewear is immensely popular these days, and a significant proportion of women wear shapewear daily. Contrary to an eroding popular belief, shapewear isn’t now just something you wear with a cocktail dress. Shapewear can help everyday outer clothes fit more comfortably and give a more defined and pleasing silhouette.

Shapewear is also the only way some women — and men — can achieve a certain popular twerk-worthy body shape without resorting to cosmetic surgery. Today, many people of all genders wear shapewear daily to feel confident and present the best version of themselves possible.

Shapewear is a godsend to women and a growing number of men as well. It’s an ancient idea given a modern twist, democratizing the perfect shape and giving people of all genders the confidence they wouldn’t have otherwise.

What are your opinions on women’s shapewear? Tell us!