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Women who avoid wearing clothes with horizontal stripes in the belief they make their bums look larger should be reassured by a study showing the opposite.
It is a common misconception that dresses or tops with horizontal stripes appear to broaden a person's figure, according to Peter Thompson, a psychologist at York University, who may be the first scientist to investigate a well-known optical illusion to fashion.
The illusion that horizontal stripes look taller and narrower than vertical lines was described in the 19th century by German physicist and physiologist, Hermann von Helmholtz.
Thompson applied the principle to women's clothes and found that a dress with vertical stripes made a woman appear about 6 per cent wider than an equivalent-sized dress with horizontal stripes.
Thompson said he did not know when the idea that horizontal stripes made women look fat came to prominence, and he also cannot explain why vertical stripes should make someone look less slim and shorter than someone wearing horizontal stripes.
- THE INDEPENDENT
