1. What Is Your Ideal Outcome?

Before you can pick the right shapewear, you need to determine and be confident in what outcome you’re looking for. Shapewear has different levels of control (a.k.a. compression), and your desired goals will help you figure out which level of control is best for you.

• Light (or Medium) Control: This is your best option if you’re mostly looking to smooth out bulges that might make wearing clothes uncomfortable. With light control shapewear, everything will get smoothed out, ensuring a clean look.
• Firm (or Medium-High) Control: With a higher level of control, you can begin to really emphasise your curves. The flexible fabric of medium-high control shapewear adds faint contours to your overall body shape while still stretching with your body. Firm control probably isn’t the best choice for every day, but it should prove comfortable for hours at a time.
• Extra-Firm (or High) Control: Here’s your choice for special occasions – think weddings, proms, cocktail parties, and such. High control shapewear gives your body a more muscular, solid look, but you should still be able to breathe. It can be that extra little push to make you look completely stunning for a big event.

Whatever choice of shapewear you go with, such as tummy  control briefs, you should always have space to move and breathe. If you feel like you’re being squeezed into the shapewear and cannot exhale and inhale properly, you should move up one or two sizes.

2. What Part of Your Body Are You Trying to Boost?

Determining which part (or parts) of your body you want to support will help you determine the right shapewear for you. You may not need shapewear specifically aimed at accentuating your behind or making your waist smaller. Try to figure out which parts of your body are causing you problems with your clothing and go from there.

• Full Body Shapewear: For serious occasions where you want everything looking perfect in its right place, you can look at full body pieces. A bodysuit will give your entire shape an extra layer of polish. However, avoid full body shapewear that doesn’t have any easily accessible openings. You don’t want to have to peel off the whole bodysuit every time you need to pee.
• Torso Shapewear: Torso pieces can help shape your chest, waist, and back. A shaping cami can help hide bra bulges or extra belly fat, letting you show off your figure with more peace of mind.
• Bottom Shapewear: If you want to draw more attention to your behind or slim out extra weight in your legs, look into bottom shapewear. There are a lot of options here, including simple bike shorts and smoothing panties. These pieces can work wonders on your bottom, legs, and thighs.

3. What’s Best for Your Body?

Different people have different body shapes. You might be shaped like a pear, a strawberry, or any number of other shapes. Luckily, there are many different kinds of shapewear created specifically for different body types.

Apple Shape: Apple-shaped bodies include a larger chest, narrow hips and shoulders, but an abundant midsection. Apple shape usually means more belly weight, which can make finding clothes that fit right awkward. You can find specific shapewear options devoted to strengthening the waistline in particular.

• Hourglass Shape: This body type has a shapely waist, and its shoulders and hips are approximately the same width. Many women want the hourglass build, so consider yourself lucky if you have it.
• Rectangle Shape: If you have a tinier bust, longer legs, and slimmer hips, you have a rectangle shape.
• Pear Shape: This body type has a fuller bottom, including hips and thighs. Its waist is defined but not too bulky, and the shoulders and chest are smaller.
• Strawberry Shape: Sort of the reverse of the pear shape, strawberry body types have less width to the hips and a smaller bottom but a large bust with wider shoulders.

No matter what shape your body is, it is beautiful. You shouldn’t approach shapewear with the intention of completely morphing the shape of your body. Rather, it can help you emphasise what’s already incredible about your body and downplay areas you’d rather not show off.

Finding the shapewear that’s best for you can help you look better, but it can also give you more understanding and control over the body you have. You can learn who you are and how to love who you are even better.