Archive for the ‘Shapewear’ Category

Hey Yummies!

Check out this glowing review of our Skins Collection by Karen Duffy for the New York Daily News Lifestyle Section. Duffy took on the task of trying out three different shapewear brands – and found Our Lillie Pantie and Lindsay Tank to be “sexy” and “comfortable.” Read the rest of her interesting article below or at New York Daily News’ website.

Karen Duffy reviews three lines of physique-slimming garments (excerpt from 11/1/2011 of New York Daily News’ website.)

“Kummerspeck is a German word that means, “weight gained from emotional or comfort eating.”

Kummer translates to “grief” and Speck is bacon. I’m carrying kummerspeck on my keister.

Let’s be honest — it takes plus- sized discipline to stay fit and firm. I prefer atrophy to exercise; my workout is more like a shirk-out. Rather than pay a personal trainer to torture me and a personal chef to spoon-feed me portion-controlled fiber nuggets, I have adopted a Lycra exoskeleton.

Shapewear is my savior.

There are many choices in slimming undergarments and knickers that claim to smooth your silhouette. A good foundation garments minimizes kummerspeck keister or any part of your body that requires taming without cutting off circulation to your extremities, lacerating your spleen or clogging your pores.

I road tested three brands of shape wear for form, fit and function: Skweez Couture, Yummie Tummie and Spanx. All three have infantile names for middle-aged figure fixers. I tried out the tank tops in order to minimize my midsection.

Skweez Couture

If you have trouble fitting into Juicy Couture, it’s time for Skweez Couture. Jill Zarin, the former cast member of “The Real Housewives of New York” designed this collection of seamless shapewear in three levels of constriction, tight, tighter and tightest.

I bought one of her Rreversible tank tops in the “tighter” range. The garment is an example of function over form — it looks like the surgical compression garment my 101-year-old great aunt Gig wears. I asked Ms. Zarin if her line was comfortable and she replied, “I didn’t make it to be comfortable, I made it to work.”

She was right, it did work and it was not comfortable. I felt like my abdominal section was locked in a pair of Chinese finger handcuffs.

I wore it to my son’s hockey game and by the second period I ran to the locker room to take it off.

The two-inch band designed to keep the garment in place left an angry red mark around my midsection and I could have used the Jaws of Life to get me out of it.

In short, Skweez lives up to its name.

On the positive side, the tank top was well designed and a good value since it’s two colors in one — one side is black, one side is white. And the labels were easy to cut off without damaging the garment.

Spanx

You know how your grandmother warned you to wear nice knickers in case you got hit by a car? You know, so if the EMTs had to cut you out of your clothes, she didn’t want you to die of embarrassment?

Well, the Assets by Spanx camisole is unadorned and plain, perfectly acceptable to wear to get hit by a bus. As shapewear, it was useless.

The bottom hem rolled up my abdomen like a broken window shade every time I moved around. It kept riding up and baring my midriff, which was the exact area I was hoping to minimize — not maximize and expose. The front and back of the garment are constructed the same way, so it managed to give me four boobs in the front and one in the back; that’s three too many breasts for me. The material felt cheap and flimsy.

In short: Pain be damned, I’d rather be Skweezed than Spanxed.

Yummie Tummie

The black Yummie Tummie Skins Collection camisole and brief didn’t look like shapewear, it looked like lingerie. Date night lingerie.

True, I’ve been married for over 10 years, but trust me, I know what I’m talking about. The tricot and mesh material is lightweight. The camisole is thin enough to be worn under clothing but is sexy enough to be seen. It was easy to slip on, and off and was really comfortable.

The garment’s v-neck supported my bust, but didn’t squeeze me into a mono-boob. The longer length kept my midriff covered.

In short: Yummie Tummie enhanced my silhouette and I felt great wearing it. This is shapewear I would not be embarrassed to be seen wearing.

And remember, outside of every thin woman, there is a fat man trying to get in.”