The best thing about shapewear in 2022 is that wearing it is a personal choice.Supplied
For a long time, one brand was synonymous with modern shapewear: Spanx. The company was founded in 2000 and flourished in an era that was notorious for our scrutiny of celebrities’ bodies in gossip magazines and the normalization of intense diet culture.
It’s a time I’ll always remember from the perspective of a preteen spending afternoons munching 100-calorie packs of Oreo Thins while watching Tyra Banks berate America’s Next Top Model contestants for being too “big.” Back then, everything, including shapewear, was about looking thin.
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Twenty-two years later, society has adopted a more progressive beauty standard and lowered its tolerance for body-shaming, but we haven’t left shapewear behind. Spanx is alive and well, but it’s hardly the buzziest name in its category anymore. A whole new generation of shapewear brands has emerged.
In 2019, Kim Kardashian disrupted the category with Skims, a collection of “solutions for every body,” as its tagline goes. The much-hyped, stylish label netted US$275-million in 2021 and is forecasted to make US$400-million this year. Earlier in 2022, musician Lizzo entered the ring with her Yitty brand, which is already valued at US$3-billion. Period underwear brand Knix offers a “Love Your Shape-Wear” line. Victoria Beckham’s VB Body is a fashion collection of shaping skirts and dresses as well as more traditional bodysuits and leggings. And Aerie, a sub-brand of American Eagle Outfitters, sells Smoothez, an “anti-shapewear shapewear” line aimed at teens. All in all, the global shapewear market is projected to reach US$7.9-billion in annual sales by 2030.
You could argue all these new contenders are revolutionary when compared to the drab underpinnings once sold in a dishevelled aisle of your local department store (let alone the millennia of corsets, bustles, brassieres, fajas and waist beads that preceded them). Compared to each other, however, they have much in common. Almost all contemporary shapewear brands share an inclusive ethos. Most cater to a diverse array of skin tones, and often feature additional colourways that are meant to be seen (Yitty’s pieces come in “Bitch I’m Blushing” pink and “Thicc Mint” green, for example). Many sell versatile products that work as standalone garments that are more like shaping athletic wear than underwear. They often try to provide options for all sizes and body shapes, with Yitty producing a 6XL and most comparable brands offering at least a 3 or 4XL.
But there’s something unsettling about the way shapewear is marketed using body positive messaging and imagery. For all its talk about inclusivity, Skims frames our bodies as problems that need to be solved. A few of these brands even acknowledge this disconnect. Heist shapewear ran a 2019 ad campaign that posed the question: “Shapewear is anti-feminist, right?” How does the industry – and its customers – reconcile embracing your body and sucking it in?
Wearing shapewear can imply self-sacrifice. A constrictive garment endured for the sake of conventional beauty standards isn’t everyone’s idea of liberation. Yet, choosing to wear these items doesn’t make you disempowered, and I’m not just saying that because it’s what brands want you to believe (though they desperately do).
Empowerment is a more complicated equation than subtraction.Supplied
Empowerment is a more complicated equation than subtraction. “In terms of its relationship to a kind of feminist politics, freeing yourself from garments that constrain you in some way physically has always been a part of conceiving of women’s liberation,” says Dr. Alison Matthews David, author and dress historian at Toronto Metropolitan University. But less clothing isn’t necessarily empowering for everyone, she adds.
Tyler Marshall, a 27-year-old plus-size fashion influencer based in the GTA, creates shapewear reviews on TikTok, her most requested content. Her favourite piece is a Knix body suit she got last year and has been wearing weekly since. “I am a big-chested girl, and my chest is low-hanging. I’ve always had to incorporate bras into my outfits, which can really ruin the look sometimes. And with Knix, I’m able to support and lift and feel comfortable and secure without a bra. I can wear it as a shirt or under other things,” she says. For Marshall, good shapewear is a blessing to those seeking extra support, hoping to avoid thigh chafe, or who are simply more comfortable with a structured feel to their clothes.
Modern shapewear brands prioritize making their underpinnings “performance-driven,” a characteristic that improves their value. (A Skims Essential T-Shirt bodysuit costs $140 and Honeylove’s SuperPower short is $119. For those prices, you want shapewear to really do something.)
“I think there is a macro trend around benefit-driven products, especially in an economy that is riddled with inflation and has recessionary aspects,” says Caroline Levy Limpert, a 15-year veteran of the intimates industry and chief marketing officer of garment manufacturer Gelmart International. In an era of fast fashion, the logic holds that one good piece of shapewear can atone for the aesthetic sins of a closet full of cheap fabric.
Canadians are quite enthusiastic about shapewear these days, says Massimiliano Tirocchi, co-founder of the e-commerce platform Shapermint, which sells an array of shapewear brands. The site’s Canadian sales grew 80 per cent year-over-year from 2021, Tirocchi says, with leggings, bodysuits and shorts among the top sellers.
Embracing shapewear in the middle of so many pandemic months of soft pants, sublime bralessness and fashion commentators musing about the death of restrictive dressing might seem off. But according to Matthews David, jumping from one style extreme to another isn’t so unusual, especially as a reaction to a time of hardship, when we’re motivated to demarcate a new era via the look and feel of our clothes.
In fact, she thinks the spotlight on shapewear is in sync with people’s predictions of a second “Roaring Twenties” post-pandemic, she says. “In some ways, shapewear just reminds me of the 1920s – it’s not going for that really structured boned silhouette, but it’s definitely a binding of certain body parts and emphasizing others.” She notes this is similar to the smoothing corsetry that helped flapper-era women achieve the silhouette that fit more breezy, sporty looks.
There is something in the air right now about looking as effortlessly flawless as Jordan Baker on a divan, even if getting there requires a few tricks. “No-makeup makeup,” a barely there, “clean girl” beauty is the current status quo, and analogous to shapewear in its emphasis on subtle enhancement. “It’s about being the best you,” says Levy Limpert about the goal of today’s shapewear. “It’s not about covering up. It’s about accentuating yourself.” Makeup mogul Charlotte Tilbury is even advertising her newest concealer as “shapewear for the face.” It’s fun to be enamoured by the illusions we can produce with a little help.
The best thing about shapewear in 2022 is that wearing it is a personal choice. Nobody is going to gasp, faint or even notice if your dress line isn’t perfectly smooth. If you choose to wear it, there is no shortage of options.