Key facts
- Marks & Spencer has released a £28 bodysuit with pockets for removable hip-enhancing pads.
- The garment aims to create an hourglass silhouette or the illusion of one.
Marks & Spencer has introduced a new bodysuit featuring removable hip padding, designed to create an hourglass silhouette. This trend in enhancing shapewear, also seen from brands like Skims, reflects a broader cultural focus on body malleability.
The introduction of enhancing shapewear by a major retailer like M&S reflects a growing trend in the fashion and beauty industry that caters to evolving body ideals, driven by celebrity influence and societal pressures around appearance.
Marks & Spencer has launched a new £28 bodysuit designed to enhance the wearer's silhouette with exaggerated hip padding. This move signals a shift in the shapewear market, moving beyond compression to augmentation. The bodysuit features pockets allowing for the insertion of pads, enabling the creation of an hourglass figure.
Charlotte Davies, M&S's director of lingerie, stated that the product responds to customer interest in "solutions that offer subtle enhancement alongside everyday comfort and confidence." This trend is influenced by catwalks and celebrity styles. M&S has previously offered similar items, such as padded bum shorts.
The emergence of enhancing shapewear aligns with broader societal trends concerning body image, including the widespread use of weight-loss drugs and an increase in cosmetic surgery. Designers on recent catwalks, like Schiaparelli's Daniel Roseberry, have also incorporated padding to alter silhouettes. Victoria Pitts-Taylor, a professor at Wesleyan University, notes that achieving current beauty ideals, which often involve specific body proportions, can require artificial sculpting, whether through fabric or surgery.
Celebrity culture, particularly figures like Kim Kardashian and her sisters, has amplified this focus on amplified curves. Kardashian's own shapewear brand, Skims, has previously released shorts with hip padding. Experts like psychotherapist Susie Orbach critique this trend, suggesting it places undue pressure on individuals to constantly "create a body." Pitts-Taylor further observes that social media and consumer culture encourage an image-conscious lifestyle, where appearance is linked to social value in an increasingly unequal world.