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Stripy clothes really can make you look fat or thin – so choose wisely

Horizontal stripes really do make us seem wider, but verticals are slimming

If you wear horizontal stripes, you really do risk looking wider than you are, according to new research by an amateur scientist. Vertical stripes, on the other hand, are a good choice to be seen as tall and thin, according to the study for BBC Radio 4’s ‘So You Want to be a Scientist’ programme.


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It also found that, as most women already suspected, the most slimming colour for clothing is plain black.
The research went further than previous 2D studies into our perception of stripes, by using 3D videos. These previous studies had actually suggested the opposite was true when it came to stripes, but it seems that once on the body, vertical stripes really are the best option.

The early 2D research was by Peter Thompson from the University of York, and it encouraged amateur scientist Val Waltham to investigate further.

"When I looked at the press coverage of the results, it was about artificial situations," Waltham explained.

"They'd used line drawings just filled in with flat stripes, and it didn't look like real people wearing real clothes."

So she decided to enter the competition with a study using videos of real people wearing striped clothes. "I don't know why I was thinking about the study as I was listening to Material World on the last day before entries closed, but on a whim I filled in the form and here we are,” said Waltham, who ended up winning the award.

Her videos, made with the help of fashion students at the University of the Creative Arts, were shown to 500 people at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. These 500 were asked to rate how wide and tall the wearers looked, and the results proved that different colours and patterns affect how we perceive people.

Are we the only ones heading straight to the shops to bulk buy stripes?