Sometimes when I’m wearing a figure hugging dress, I want to be able to smooth out my silhouette a bit so you can’t see my underwear or bra line. My usual reaction to shapewear is “nope, GTFO”, because it’s not necessary and I’m not gonna be uncomfortable just so you can’t see a bit of chub, but I spied this slip from Danish brand Zhenzi on the Navabi website and I’ve never tried shapewear in a slip form so I figured it was worth trying out. Think of me as your fashion guinea pig.
The first thing that really caught my attention was that the fabric is 82% polyamide and 18% elastane. If you didn’t already know, elastane is added to fabrics to help them to stretch and retain their shape – that gives you more freedom of movement and means that they’ll stay fitting well. You find elastane in a lot of clothing, like leggings, denim, dresses, tees and even underwear – pretty much any clothing that is a bit stretchy. What intrigued me was the polyamide, which is a popular material for making activewear. I don’t know about you, but I could live in my activewear – it’s comfy as heck. I always remembered shapewear being particularly uncomfortable, so making it out of material used to make activewear seemed like a genius idea!
When it first arrived, I took my Zhenzi shapewear slip out of the box and laughed. No way was this going to fit me. I checked the box and the size was correct, so I put it on and hoped it would fit. There was a point between getting it over my head and trying to wrestle it over my chest that I actually thought “shit, they’ve put the wrong size in the box and now I’m trapped. I am stuck in this thing until Doug gets home in 10 hours. What is my life?”
I took a moment to calm down and realised that the grip strip that’s inside the bottom hem had somehow gotten tangled, and once I had that sorted I was able to put the slip on properly. Crisis averted! No need to panic, people. Actually, it’s super comfortable – like my body is being wrapped in a hug!
It’s not as intense as some shapewear I’ve worn before – as you can see from this side shot (above) it doesn’t magically give me a flat stomach or a Jessica Rabbit-esque figure. What is does do is smooth things out (underwear line, bra line etc), which is the kind of thing I want from shapewear. It’s also really comfortable – I’ve worn it a few times now and find that I don’t get super hot in it like I thought I would (although I’d prefer to wear it when it’s not the middle of the NZ summer!) and my body doesn’t feel uncomfortably restricted. The grip strip at the bottom (that caused that moment of initial panic) is actually really handy and stops the shapewear from riding up.
I’ve worn it with fitted dresses and with more floaty ones (I’m wearing it with both of these dresses), opaque dresses and sheerer ones, and I’m suitably impressed. This has managed to convert me from a shapewear naysayer to a sometimes fan – at least of this piece.
What do you think about shapewear, love it or hate it?
Tell me about your experiences!
Meagan wears:
Zhenzi Shapewear Slip from Navabi (L-XL)
Boris Industries Pointed Hem A-Line Dress from Navabi (5)
Limited Edition Nia Leather Sandals from Number One Shoes (9)
Photos: Doug Peters / Ambient Light Photography
Disclaimer: I tried this shapewear courtesy of Navabi but all opinions are (as always) my own.
I like comfy shapewear, I have a singlet one I picked up not long ago that just helps hide my bra and undie lines that I love. I keep looking for a nice slip one that isn’t horridly tight. It seems most stores carry them up to a size 14 or 16, which I wouldn’t ever dream of fitting. Gosh that fear of being stuck in something is crazy, isn’t it? I get this moment of panic and think ‘oh god, this is my life now’.
You look rad! I like shapewear that hugs gently and doesn’t stop me breathing. It made me laugh when you talked about feeling stuck – I got trapped trying on my wedding dress and had to get J to come in and pull me out with his eyes closed! 😉 xx
Haha OMG that sounds like a debacle! I’m so over shapewear that’s uncomfortable and restrictive, was so glad when I found this!
I like to wear shapewear but comfy one. Some are just impossible to wear, once I thought I was going to faint it was my size but yet so tight, I don’t like it when it presses my stomach too much. I wear shapewear with fitted dresses too. I didn’t know this brand so I’ll try 🙂
I agree, it’s got to be comfortable and you need to be able to breathe!
Oh I know that feeling too, tho for me it’s usually with my arms in the air, head contorted at a strange angle, and fabric half choking me as I struggle to get it down over my boobs!
I’ve only worn one piece of shapewear and it was a cheap tummy control short from the warehouse .. I find it pretty uncomfortable on my stomach when sitting for long (driving), or it rolls down creating a ridgeline where I’m wearing it to look smooth .. Because of this I bought a skirt one at Kmart yesterday but I’d really prefer short to prevent chubrub as the creams/deodorant etc is giving me little relief ..
I’ve been there haha! I’m not a fan of the short ones (because I find them too restrictive), but if it rolls down it sounds like it might be the wrong size or not go up high enough. I know some brands have different rises to them, so it might be a case of trying different brands to see how they fit. I know what you mean about the chub rub with the skirt – I have worn my Sonsee shorts under this slip and you can’t see line under it and no chub rub!
I love wearing shape-wear under dresses – gaed you make me laugh – at getting stuck for 10hours <3
In a ridiculous situation like that all you can do is laugh, right?