Hi Ladies,

I recently received this email from “Trisha”  on a subject that I hear about quite often:

Marianne- i like to wear high waist underwear to smooth out my middle. But one problem that i have with any high waist underwear that i buy is that the waist always rolls down. It’s annoying because the rolled up part of the high waist creates bulges under my tops… and it’s embarrassing having to pull it up all the time.  And it’s not like i have some real active job where i’m moving around a lot, i just have a desk job. That high waist just keeps rolling down like it’s running away from my boobs :-( help!!

Well Trisha, high waisted shapewear is definitely a great call for smoothing out your midsection and eliminating muffin-tops.  However, when you shop for it you need to make sure that it has at least one of two features - I suspect that the pieces that you own have neither:

1) A waistband over 1″ in width

or

2) Boning along the front of the midsection

#1 will go far towards preventing roll-down, as you can imagine with the wide elastic waistband holding the garment up.  However if you are wearing the wrong size - too big or too small - the garment will still roll down because there’s nothing structural built into the high waist to stop the fabric from creasing downwards.

#2 will guarantee that your shapewear does not roll down.  No matter what the boning is made of it will keep the high waist right where it’s supposed to be, all day long.  This is most effective when complemented by an inner lining in the high waist section of the garment.

Here are examples of shapers that meet the two points, respectively: #1, wide waistband; #2, boning

Good luck to you Trisha, don’t give up on high waist shapers - you have the right idea!

Best,

Marianne