Clothes retailers are probably fooling you with skinny mirrors.
Almost everyone is familiar with the event of buying clothes that you love and then, hating them once you get home. Nope, buying those clothes was not your wrong decision, in fact, it was the result of the clever retailers tricking you. Shoppers have been suspicious of retailers employing skinny mirrors to make them look thinner than they are.
Creating a mirror that can make the image look slimmer than the real person is not difficult. Physics professor Dr. Ken Mellendorf explains,
“A completely flat mirror will show an image behind it of exactly the same shape and size as the actual object. Slight curvature along only one axis can make a person look fat or skinny. To make you look thin, your image needs to be compressed horizontally or extended vertically. Most mirrors bend over time top to bottom. If seen from the side, there is a slight curvature in the edge. The top and bottom edges are usually straight. Your home mirror can do this due to its own weight. If the center bulges out a little bit, your height will appear slightly smaller but your width will not be changed.”
While the skinny mirrors may have just been a speculation in the past but evidence suggest that these are real now. A startup named The Skinny Mirror based in California appeared on Shark Tank in 2015. Entrepreneur Belinda Jasmine showed a line of mirrors designed such that they made the reflections appear 10 pounds lighter than real.
The Sharks, however, showed no interest. This disinterest, however, could not stop Jasmine from continuing her business. Reportedly, ‘The Skinny Mirror’ has been in talks with a popular apparel chain having over 450 stores worldwide. The company has been selling the mirrors to small boutiques since 2013. The company website reports that the stores using skinny mirrors experience 18.2 percent more sales.
The cost of the mirrors ranges between $160 and $5,500 depending on the size and frame.
You, as a customer would naturally think of it as deception but the company disagrees. They believe that the product helps create a positive self-image to raise one’s self-esteem, especially because the mirrors even have the company’s logo. Some stores, however, have requested for the logo to be removed.
After all, you look only as good as you feel.
Now, you have to think if the use of such mirrors is fair or not. Do keep an eye out to find out which stores are using skinny mirrors to deceive you.
See the magic for yourself in the following video.
We would love to know your thoughts on the use of skinny mirrors. Comment below to let us know!
I’m surprised there are no comments on this topic. I’m lucky to have a generous amount of discretionary money to buy clothes. Living in a small town limits choices so i shop st two or three stores. I’ve been convinced that one store in particular has a skinny mirror. I’ve bought a LOT of clothing there and frequently asked myself, what was I thinking?
It makes me upset that retailers are trying to manipulate us into buying clothes that don’t look the way you think they do after leaving the store. Catching a view of yourself in another non-skinny mirror can give you a shock that you actually don’t look so great in that outfot. Instead of making you feel better about your body, it causes embarrassment. Why try to trick yourself. Be honest about how you look. We want to buy clothes that flatter our real selves, not some phony skinny mirror image. A lot of stores won’t give refunds so its a double whammy.