The news was unmissable. When Melissa Viviane Jefferson announced on Instagram on March 23 that she was about to launch something really big, bigger than anything she’s ever done, it raised expectations. Not only because Jefferson (33) has 12.2 million Instagram followers, but because she is world famous as a singer and rapper under the stage name Lizzo, and is certainly a phenomenon in America – not least because she can flutes and twerking at the same time.
She just had a new single out, had her Prime Video reality show Watch Out For The Big Grrrls announced and it would be immensely popular Saturday Night Live Hosting – what on earth could be more impressive?
When she revealed a week later that her new project involved launching shapewear, the response was enthusiastic, but also surprised. The enthusiasm related to the unprecedented inclusive sizing from 6XL to XS (Dutch sizes 58 to 34), and then the largest size was also mentioned first. The surprise was the fact that Lizzo, who is quite voluptuous with her clothing size 56, does not care about the ideal thinness and is just very proud of her curves and roles.
Remarkable, because shapewear, as the tight stuff is also called, is the opposite of body positive† It’s meant to flatten out bulges and to stow and prop up anything that hangs – bringing the body closer to the ideal hourglass silhouette.
Bridget Jones
Although the name shapewear is fairly new, the items themselves are absolutely not. When the American chemical company DuPont invented nylon in 1938 and invented lycra (also known as elastane or spandex) in 1958, rigid corsets were gradually replaced by stretchy step-ins and corselets. In recent decades, just about every woman who was ashamed of belly, butt or thighs – including Bridget Jones with her big beige ‘scary stomach-holding-in panties’ – bought shapewear.
The American firm spanx (since 2000) it did good business worldwide. Besides Spanx, a lot of corrective underwear from Magic, Simone Pérèle and Maidenform is also sold in the Netherlands, mainly in black, ivory and beige.
Celebrities also come around to wearing shapewear. Adele admitted to being a fan, Joan Collins tipped in her column in The Daily Mail investing in a tight body from Spanx and Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon even became shareholders of the brand. Kim Kardashian, who claims she can’t live without shapewear and who wore three layers after giving birth to look in shape, took it even more enthusiastically. In 2019 she launched her own shapewear line: Skims†
Tighteners
Where Spanx sells its items in four colors and in sizes XS to 3X, Kardashian went one step further. Her tighteners are available in nine skin tones and sizes XXS to 5X. The most striking item is shaping trousers with one knee-length and one ultra-short leg, to wear under a party dress with a split up to the groin.
What else did Lizzo have to add at the launch of her brand this month, other than that size 6X? A lot of bright colours, hysterical prints and truckloads of logos. Unlike Kardashian, who kept her shapewear as understated as possible on the advice of ex-husband Kanye West, Lizzo packs a punch.
Her ‘booty lifting and cheek defining’ shapewear, which she calls after her childhood nickname Yitty in addition to skin tones, it is also available in yellow, turquoise, red, lilac and with a psychedelic ‘Neon Pussy Pink Buttafly’ print. The Yitty logo is repeated endlessly on the elastic bands.
With those crazy colors and prints, Lizzo comes close to another all sizes celebrity brand: Savage X Fenty from Rihanna, who founded the label in 2018 and now earns a lot from it. The big difference is that Rihanna’s lingerie, in whatever size you buy it, is anything but corrective: Savage X Fenty is often wafer-thin, transparent and petite.
How brave?
The question remains how precisely Lizzo can promote corrective, constricting clothing. On The New York Times she explained that she has no intention of changing other people’s bodies at all, but that she wants to change the essence of shapewear. It’s okay if Yitty items peep out from under your normal clothes. The items are even attractive enough to be worn as outerwear.
‘I sell a mentality: I can do what I want with my body, wear what I want and feel good about it. Let’s stop calling it brave to show off a great body. It’s just a body, just like your body.’
The first reviews are already online, and call Yitty too expensive for the quality, not really corrective, but cheerful and comfortable to sit on. Lizzo herself has now had the Yitty logo applied to her right buttock†