Body-Shaping Costumes Are a Hot Trend for Halloween
With waist-trainers reaching peak popularity in 2016, and all the different personas you can adopt for the Halloween season, it’s little surprise women are seeking out body-shaping costumes for the year’s most haunted holiday.
Big-box retailers are embracing the body-shaping fashion trend as a key costume choice for the season; just take a peek at a corseted Cruella de Ville from Target ($50) or a waist-cinched Dorothy at Walmart ($53). Party City even has an entire category devoted to body-shaping looks this year, something the retailer has been tracking for a while.
According to a rep for the chain, the store’s Halloween experts “use the influence of popular culture and fashion to inspire” their costume accessories and looks. “Trends have shifted toward the corset trend, a classic for Halloween, and our costumes experts at Party City have picked up on that trend, incorporating it into a wide selection of our women’s costumes for all shapes and sizes,” a brand rep tells Yahoo Style.
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While it’s great women are choosing costumes and clothes that they feel comfortable in, are there any reasons to beware? Perhaps, if clothing choices turn to obsessive behaviors, which may cross a line and affect your health.
Body-shaping and waist-training is perhaps one of the most controversial trends to hit the mainstream in recent years. While cinching your middle may help you nab an hourglass shape, wearing garments too tight, too often can lead to some pretty significant health effects. You may notice bruising of the ribs, dizziness and shortness of breath, as well as be at risk for blood clots.
In addition to the physical repercussions, some have reported mental health side effects, as well. Former Yahoo Health editor Amy Rushlow noticed a sharp rise in irritability and more mood swings during the week she wore a waist trainer.Furthermore, psychologist and counselor Dr. Karla Ivankovich told Yahoo Beauty earlier this month that obsessively striving for a body ideal through over-the-top tactics of any kind can lead to dependency and negative effects on self-esteem.
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This is not to say all body-shaping costumes and garments are bad. They can certainly boost self-esteem if you wear them correctly, from time to time — just watch your motivation for sporting waist-cinching garments. Make sure you feel that you want to wear the look, not need to wear it — and, of course, not too tight. If it’s uncomfortable, opt out.
Here’s why, according to Aaron Clark, MD, a family medicine physician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “Body shapers and other compressive garments can create a or worsen health problems,” he tells Yahoo Style. “A tight abdominal garment such as a body shaper can lead to gastroesophageal reflux (GERD), or it can also make breathing more difficult for some people. Thigh compression sleeves can impair circulation and might make varicose veins worse, and the tight abdominal compression can cause pinching of nerves, which can result in numbness on the outside part of the leg.” Yikes.
Clark says that if you’re wearing a body-shaping garment, do so “for the shortest period of time possible, and make sure it is not so tight it’s going to impair breathing easily or cause abdominal discomfort.” If you have a pre-existing condition like acid reflux, think twice before sporting a corset-like garment that may exacerbate symptoms at a party or event.
Mostly, make sure you have fun this Halloween. Choose a costume that enhances your experience, not hinders it.
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