Why do dark colored shirts make you look thinner?
In: 6
Your brain and eyes work together to tell something’s shape from how light and shadows fall on it. They’re really, really good at this, to the point that we can make optical illusions from tricking this system. For example, do you think [these two squares](https://blog.pascallisch.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Lightness.png) are the same color? Now cover up the middle part.
By wearing a dark color, the whole thing is shadowed, so there’s no shadow information for this system to intuit what the depth of the object is.
For a visual example, look at this [black circle](https://i.redd.it/tyoa08hsisqy.jpg). It’s very, very hard to see that it’s a sphere, because there’s no shadow visible on the ball.
A dark outfit that doesn’t reflect light does the same thing with a round body. By being the same color in both lit and shadowy parts so there’s no perception of depth and volume so the wearer’s body shape also looks flatter and thinner.
Simplest explanation: white shirts – you can see the shadows forming your shape
Black shirts – literally the colour of shadows so people cant see the shape of your big belly very well.
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