Here’s the skinny on looking slim — horizontal stripes are in!

Fashionistas of varying physiques have long been force-fed the belief that wearing horizontal stripes makes the body look short and fat.

Well, that’s a big fat lie, according to eye-widening new data, debunking the antiquated myth about lined patterns and width.

Horizontal pencil stripes offer the highest slimming effect on the female body, according to new research. WHstudio Leushin N – stock.adobe.com

“The pencil stripe style, characterized by horizontal stripes, makes the figure appear slimmer,” authors of the April 2026 study revealed .

But, there is a thin line between the type of stripes that actually flatter the figure and the stripes that simply do not, warn the experts.

Researchers from the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology conducted a trio of experiments to determine the slimming effect — a styling technique that uses optical illusions to make one’s frame appear longer and leaner — of striped clothing.

The…