You might not even know what a mirdle is, but Marks & Spencer has just launched a super-strength one. It’s a girdle. For men. It doesn’t look like a girdle, it looks like a T-shirt but it’s designed to pull you in, straighten you out and make you look ‘sleek and streamlined’.

So whether you call it ‘shapewear’ or ‘control clothing’ or go with the new word, ‘mirdle’, you may be thinking it’s a magic answer. But it’s not. While the top strength version, which looks something like a classic vest, claims it will slim 1.5 inches off the biggest abdomen, there’s still a couple of issues. What do you look like when you take it off, and how easy is it to spot a mirdle?

Well, everything does tend to hang out when the mirdle is removed and you can have some pretty unattractive compression marks too. As for recognising a mirdle when you see it, women are brilliant at this and as the range of designs is limited, most savvy ladies will spot a mirdle a mile away. Do you really want to be advertising the fact that you’re a bit paunchy?

It’s a better idea to dress cleverly to slim your figure without compressing it. In summer a black vest under a blue or grey short-sleeved shirt gives the impression of a V-shaped torso, For winter, wearing a well fitting pair of trousers with a generously-cut sweatshirt and a scarf that dangles down, cutting the width of your body in two looks substantial rather than chunky

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  Mirdle Your Middle&hellip
  May 12th, 2010 at 11:46 am
  

  Kay, I like your suggestions on how to disguise a fuller figure…

  Regarding your issues with the mirdle:

  1. What do you look like when you take it off?

  Who cares? Do you buy lipstick based on what you look like when you take it off? Do you buy any item of clothing with any serious consideration about what you look like when you take it off? No. You buy it for how it makes you look and FEEL when you have it on.

  Ever squeezed into a pair of oh-so-tight jeans or killer heels because they make you feel sexy? Course you have. Not every man wants to wear a mirdle to try and get a lady into bed. Many of us are already happily in relationships and just want to improve our appearance for certain events and occasions.

  2. How easy is it to spot a mirdle?

  I grant you that if you “keep ‘em peeled” you will eventually spot a man you can tell is “contained” by an item of clothing. Check out Simon Cowell on American Idol and there’s a man wearing a belly buster. However, I have road tested this theory on some of the most brutally blunt women out there, and they just don’t notice.

  That’s the thing — if you are a super judgemental (and eagle-eyed) woman who goes around criticizing and appraising other people, you are going to diss a man for having a pot belly as much as you will diss him for apparently wearing a mirdle compression shirt. Most men would happily take that risk of you not spotting them wearing the mirdle shirt over having you “downgrade” him in your mind by immediately spotting his pot belly or chunkiness.

  The mirdle is a confidence booster that helps men bypass the “first impressions barrier” and gives them a chance to show who they really are and what they can offer. Seems like a good thing to me.