It’s time to buy all the horizontal striped maternity clothing you can find! Why? Because contrary to popular belief, horizontal stripes don’t make you look fat. They are also masters of disguise when camouflaging a breastfeeding lift flap too.
Now before you think we’ve gone bananas, we are telling the truth. 19th century German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz made an important discovery we now call the Helmholtz illusion. He said, “There are numerous illustrations of the same effect in everyday life. An empty room looks smaller than one that is furnished; and a wall covered with a paper pattern looks larger than one painted uniformly in one colour. Ladies' frocks with cross stripes on them make the figure look taller.”
He created the Helmholtz square illusion which has two equal squares: one with vertical stripes and the other has horizontal stripes. He found that the horizontal striped square looked taller than the other. These findings have been replicated numerous times, yet it remains a common belief in the fashion world that horizontal stripes make you look fat.
Now that we know better, isn’t it time to start hunting out horizontal striped maternity clothing?
Horizontal Striped Maternity Clothing Doesn’t Make You Look Fat
So, you still don’t believe that horizontal stripes don’t make you look fat? Well, what if we told you that vertical stripes do make you look wider than you actually are? In 2009, British psychologists Peter Thompson and Kyriaki Mikellidou conducted an experiment using the Helmholtz illusion. They created two identical three dimensional female models, and dressed them in stripes.
It turns out, Helmholtz was once again proven correct. The model whose dress had vertical stripes looked like she had wider hips than the other. In fact, it was identified that to make both models appear as if they were the same size, the one wearing horizontal stripes would need to be 6% wider than the one wearing vertical!
What can we learn from this?
- Horizontal stripes are flattering
- The Helmholtz illusion is real and it works
We can also add that stripes are great at disguising the breastfeeding lift flap. This is widely reviewed as the easiest access type. Although, it is often overlooked for not being as discrete, the stripes fix that. Stripes also match with almost everything, making them an easy addition to extend your wardrobe options.
What are you waiting for? It’s time to start shopping for horizontal striped maternity clothing now!
