How to look slimmer through the middle

What actually moves it

The usual advice splits into two camps, one saying hide it under something loose and the other saying wear something fitted, and the table disagrees with both of them by a wide margin.

7 rules in the table produce this effect: 3 in your favour, the largest worth +15, and 4 against, the largest worth -22. The deltas are what each is worth at full strength against a neutral garment, and they add, so one rule pulling -22 is not undone by two small ones pulling the other way.

By the usual convention: an open layer draws two vertical lines down the centre. It is the most reliable slimming device there is. (+15, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-open-layer]
A higher rise sits above the fullest part of the waist and gives the shirt something to break against. (+10, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-high-rise]
A regular cut skims the midsection without gripping or ballooning. (+9, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-regular-skim]

What works against it

The same table, read for what it penalises. The most expensive thing you can do to this goal is worth -22 on its own, which is past the ten points that move a garment from "depends" to "skip": boxy oversized volume across the middle reads wider rather than looser.

Every rule on this half is keyed to a fuller middle, so it is describing a garment against a body rather than a garment on its own. A garment is not the problem; a garment on this body is.

Boxy oversized volume across the middle reads wider rather than looser. (-22, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-boxy-oversized]
Slim cuts cling at the widest point instead of skimming past it. (-12, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-slim-cling]
Heavy fabric adds bulk exactly where the frame already carries it. (-12, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-heavy-weight]
By the usual convention: a bold pattern across the middle pulls the eye straight to it. (-10, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-bold-pattern-top]

Where it depends, and on what

4 garments here are argued in both directions by the rules on this page, and an oversized shirt is the widest of them: +7 at one end and -22 at the other. That is the answer, not a failure to give one.

The rules also stack. 4 of the combinations below put two of them on the same person at once, and the largest lands -31.6 on an oversized shirt once oval-boxy-oversized and oversized-short-frame have both fired. Two rules pulling the same way is the situation that produces the numbers people find hard to believe.

Every rule here is keyed to carrying weight around the middle, which the classifier reads from waist against chest. If your waist sits well inside your chest, these are not your rules and the oversized piece they penalise hardest is penalised for a different reason on your body.

Oversized shirts: +7 whatever your shape, at 188cm.
Oversized shirts: -12 whatever your shape, at 163cm.
Oversized shirts: -22 on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested.
Boxy jackets: +7 whatever your shape, at 188cm.
Boxy jackets: -12 whatever your shape, at 163cm.
Boxy jackets: -22 on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested.
Chunky knits: +9 on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested.
Chunky knits: -12 on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested.
Bold-print tops: +9 on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested.
Bold-print tops: -10 on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested.
Oversized shirts at 163cm on a fuller middle: -31.6, with oval-boxy-oversized and oversized-short-frame both firing.
Boxy jackets at 163cm on a fuller middle: -31.6, with oval-boxy-oversized and oversized-short-frame both firing.
Structured blazers at the same build on a fuller middle: +21.3, with oval-open-layer and oval-regular-skim both firing.
Unstructured blazers at the same build on a fuller middle: +21.3, with oval-open-layer and oval-regular-skim both firing.

Every rule, with the number it carries

The full set, ours and the ones that contradict it, with ids so you can hold us to them. A rule from geometry is stated flat; one that rests on convention is marked as convention, because "this is how it is done here" and "this is how it works" are different claims.

8 of them never argued at full volume on the builds tested: oversized-tall-frame carries +7 and landed +4.2. Every rule is graded by how firmly the body sits inside the label that fired it, so a body near a threshold gets a quieter version of the same opinion rather than the full one, and the delta is the ceiling rather than the reading.

Every rule here was demonstrated on a real garment in the list above, so nothing on this page is a claim we could not fire.

By the usual convention: an open layer draws two vertical lines down the centre. It is the most reliable slimming device there is. (+15, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-open-layer]
A higher rise sits above the fullest part of the waist and gives the shirt something to break against. (+10, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-high-rise]
A regular cut skims the midsection without gripping or ballooning. (+9, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-regular-skim]
Boxy oversized volume across the middle reads wider rather than looser. (-22, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-boxy-oversized]
Slim cuts cling at the widest point instead of skimming past it. (-12, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-slim-cling]
Heavy fabric adds bulk exactly where the frame already carries it. (-12, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-heavy-weight]
By the usual convention: a bold pattern across the middle pulls the eye straight to it. (-10, on a fuller middle, at every height and bone scale tested) [oval-bold-pattern-top]
By the usual convention: oversized volume swallows a shorter frame instead of draping on it. (-12, whatever your shape, at 163cm) [oversized-short-frame]
By the usual convention: a tall frame has the length to carry oversized volume properly. (+7, whatever your shape, at 188cm) [oversized-tall-frame]

Whose body this is, in our terms

The rules above are keyed to a classification, and the classification is what makes them computable. A fuller middle is what a person calls it; the pages below are the same body under the name the scorer uses, with every garment we probe scored against it.

Each of those pages runs the same rules across seven builds rather than one, which is where a number that moves with your height stops being an average and becomes your number.

A fuller middle, also called an apple shape or a round build: what we call an oval.