Recently, yet another helpful salesperson told a mother that her daughter NEEDED Spanx in order to wear a fire red dress at age 13. The mother disagreed on Facebook (Facebook = it’s a mom thing) in a viral letter to top all viral letters.
Isn’t it great that insisting that someone NEEDS to wear foundational garments is about as useful as a lifetime subscription to a newsletter about how much Spanx sucks? Facebook Mom: you’re cool. Dillard’s style guru, we hope you continue to win friends and influence people for your slimming advice for children.
Anyway, we’d like throw in another helpful idea. When you’re recommending Spanx to all the needy people of the world who need to erase traces of soft stomach, here’s something else you shouldn’t say.
THIS: “My friend is a STICK [meaning slim] and she wears double Spanx. Everyone needs it.” Your friend who is slimmer doesn’t make your fashion tip to help us lead a more flattering life any more palatable.
Yes, plenty of famous women swear by Spanx and are totally cool with it. But it’s not consoling to learn that people of ALL sizes use Spanx because they smooth you out, hold you in, whatever. Because even at their size, they want to shape their figures so curvier women definitely should too. It doesn’t mean you should be telling curvier women they had better shape up and squeeze into some shapewear because everyone’s doing it. In fact, telling anyone they need Spanx is annoying.
Body altering garments work for Joan on Mad Men — and we talked to Christina Hendricks and Janie Bryant about that. We support women who want to wear this stuff. If Salma Hayek rolled around on the floor in bubble wrap to achieve her look, more power to her. Everyone, including that slim friend people love to talk about, is totes free to wear whatever she wants including putting the head floral we saw in Paris menswear shows on her shoulder pads. We didn’t ask you to compare us to anyone else. Knowing that another Rioter who happens to be slimmer than us does the same thing doesn’t make it all good.
So we can definitely stop reassuring curvier women that everyone needs Spanx, even slim people. Spanx yourselves to the moon and back if you’d like, but you’re not making women love this advice any more just because everybody “needs” it.
Related Links:
Women on Their Most Humiliating Shopping Experiences
Model Georgina Burke on Her Impossible Quest to Find Clothes that Fit
