Best shapewear 2024, tried and tested picks, from Skims to Spanx

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Shapewear isn’t for everyone – and it certainly doesn’t need to be used to conform your body to any kind of silhouette if you’re uncomfortable wearing it.

However, if you’re firmly in the “pro” category and love it for its confidence-boosting capacity – or if you’ve never tried shapewear before and are looking to dip a toe to see what all the fuss is about – you’ve come to the right place. After a lot of trial and error, we’ve brought together our favourite pieces to make the search for your next (or first) style a little easier.

Despite the meteoric success of Kim Kardashian’s sellout Skims brand, it’s not an effortless task to find the perfect piece to suit you. There’s a lot of options out there – from full bodysuits to waist cinchers and everything in between – all with a variety of features, such as plunge backs or no seams. But this abundance can be more than a little intimidating, not to mention time-consuming to scroll through.

This edit aims to help narrow down the choices for you. All you need to do is pinpoint what your needs are and start from there. Do you want to focus on shaping a certain part of your body, for example? Or prioritise feeling sexy while supported? Perhaps you have a specific outfit in mind, or need a more versatile piece that works under everything?

The good thing is, shapewear is an area in fashion that’s only getting more inclusive; from the wide spectrum of skin tone hues to sizes ranging up to UK 30. No matter what you’re after, we hope you’ll find something here that works for you.

How we tested

Anyone who’s ever tried to squeeze themselves into a pair of Spanx knows trying on shapewear is not an easy task. At IndyBest, we take our role as reviewers seriously, so, we tried on more than 30 pieces of shapewear, across 15 different brands, to decipher which are the best items worth your money.

The pieces that did it for us after the first try made it to our second round of trials, which meant taking these pieces out on the town and seeing how they fared after a few hours – some stayed put, some didn’t. Some we forgot we were wearing (hello, Heist), and some we desperately wanted to rip off by the time we got back home (don’t worry, they didn’t make the cut).

We judged based on four factors: comfort, effectiveness, price and versatility. Some excelled in different areas, and we’ve highlighted which pieces we think are the best shapewear for different circumstances.

The best shapewear pieces for 2024 are: