A girlfriend of mine recently referred to her "fat mirror" (one that made her look wider and shorter) and her "skinny mirror" (one that elongated her frame). Is this a red flag for some major body image dysmorphia or is she on to something? For me, buying a mirror has always been about its frame and its shape. It never occurred to me that some mirrored reflections could be more accurate than others. And, really, who cares? What matters is what is on the inside, right? I know, I know. But let's indulge this narcissistic train of thought for just a moment.
Think about clothes shopping. Have you ever found an outfit that looks great in the changing room but only so-so at home? Was it just buyer's remorse? Was it a matter of lighting? (We all know that soft lighting is more forgiving than, say, fluorescent lighting.) Or was the store's mirror tricking you?
A few "news" articles (yes, news articles) have questioned the accuracy of changing room mirrors. It seems that there are some conspiracy theorists who believe that retailers trick you into buying more clothes by equipping their stores with "skinny mirrors"! Are some mirrors really more accurate than others at reflecting the "real" you?
According to Oklahoma physics teacher Jody Bowie, even the slightest bend in a mirror can distort your image. "Really it's just a piece of glass with a reflection on the back so if the glass is bent in any way, shape or fashion," Bowie says. "If you make it bend this way, the light would hit the mirror and go off in an angle so it would make you look larger. A bend in the opposite direction will make you look slimmer."
Another physics teacher, Dr. Ken Mellendorf of Illinois, explains it like this: "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. This can make a person look a little fat."
If you want the truth (can you handle the truth?), invest in a strong, thick mirror that is less likely to bend under its own weight. Some experts contend that a high-quality 1/4-inch thick plate glass mirror is a better choice than a thinner, 3/16" thick mirror because it will be less prone to distortion.
It shouldn't make a difference if you have a cheval mirror (a long mirror that is fixed to a frame that stands on the floor) or a wall-mounted floor mirror. The key is that the actual glass itself is not bent or warped in any way. However, simply leaning a bare, unframed floor mirror up against the wall may make it more likely to bend and, therefore, more likely to distort your image.
Image: EQ3 mirror at Invironments Design.
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Target had a "fat" mirror.
They should pass out Prozac after you exit their dressing rooms. Talk about depressing. The combo of the awful fluorescent lights and the RED WALLS! make you look especially pale, green, and well, unflattering.
That's my defense and I'm sticking to it.
I have a 'fat mirror.' But I have it turned the other way, making it a 'skinny' mirror. :)
If anyone's in the market for a Skinny Mirror, buy the $5 floor mirror sold at Target. I ended up giving it to my friend, who loved check herself out in it.
My parents have a mirror on a wall in their bathroom that is anything but flat, and gives you all kinds of weird and unflattering distortions depending on where you stand in front of it. It's a real downer if you use their shower.
I can vouch for that $5 Target floor mirror, too. I'm all about it, until I check out my "real" reflection somewhere else. But I don't get the science of it; how does this work?
Many moons ago I worked at Pier 1 and one of the floor mirrors (had a white wicker frame) made me look about six feet tall and 90 pounds. Couldn't believe that someone actually bought it; it belonged in a funhouse.
I bought a cheap rectangular mirror from someone off of Craigslist. When I got it home, I knew why it was only $10. Fat mirror.
My friend stayed at my house for a few days last month and came out of my walk-in closet to announce, "Wow! Your mirror is a TOTAL skinny mirror!" I was heartbroken to find out that I might be walking around all these years looking chubbier than I think I am. Ha!
There is a club here in Calgary that has the most legendary skinny mirror. I only go there every few months, and the first place I go is the ladies' washroom to see myself in all my 7ft-tall-105-lbs glory. And when you go in there, it's packed full of women who have also flocked to their own supermodel reflections. It's the most famous mirror in town.
I think that people should be kinder and gentler to themselves as often as possible. So, lean an adequately hefty vertical full length mirror against your wall instead of hanging it straight on. Takes at least 5 pounds off of you. Not so much that it makes you delusional; just enough to keep the spirits lifted. I highly recommend it!
As someone who spends a lot of time in front of a full wall of mirrors (I teach ballet) I know exactly which mirror I want to stand in front of. There are very definite fat and skinny mirrors in every dance studio I've even been in. For me it's not about fat or skinny though it's about short or tall. I love to see myself just little taller than my normal 5'4".
If I lean my rectangular mirror against the wall, it becomes a skinny mirror. The greater the lean, the skinnier I am!
Sucks that most of us use the mirror to measure our self image (too fat? too skinny?) instead of using it to make sure our panties aren't pinching our butt too much that it shows through pants or if the top looks better tucked in or out.
Either way, I'd want a flat mirror too, but the thought of spending hundreds of dollars on a good mirror is ridiculous.
So does anyone have any resource recommendations for high quality non distorting mirrors?
I've wanted a large high quality mirror for a while - I'd love to turn my apartment into more of a yoga friendly space (the mirrors help with alignment).
I'm with MsDonna! I intentionally installed my (cheapo) full length closet mirror to be a skinny mirror. I figure if I look good in the mirror, I carry myself a little better throughout the day, which has the effect of making me look five pounds lighter to everyone else too. So the mirror doesn't really lie afterall.
Use all the "skinny mirrors" you like - it's not for me though, because there's usually a "fat camera" nearby, waiting to prove how bad I actually look.
ugh, i have a "skinny mirror" and now i'm paranoid all the time that i look terrible no matter what the mirror says
I had a "skinny mirror" in my college dorm.
It was there when I moved in. And I'm naturally thin, so I didn't think much more than "I need to gain a few pounds" when I looked at my reflection in it.
But then one of my friends came in and started checking herself out in it. She told everyone else it was a "skinny mirror." And my room was the most popular place to go before a date or dance.
I'm pretty sure a couple of high-end hotels I've been in have used "skinny mirrors" as I know that my mirrors at home and the ones at the gym show a slightly wider me. I suspect it's deliberate.
most recently i was in DWR wishing i had enough money to buy one of their very large mirrors where my best friend and i could barely look away - our reflections were stunning (in her case, moreso than usual). I then had to go across the street to the bank - DWR in Canada can only process cash or credit - and I caught myself on the bank security camera and nearly broke down into tears.
Also in my retail experience as a SA at BCBG, whenever a woman was umm-ing and hmm-ing over a purchase i often asked them to step out of the fitting room and look toward a different (skinny) mirror and it often closed the sale. (my apologies)
I'm the one person who may be the other way around! I want a "fat" mirror rather than a "skinny" mirror. I'm 5'10 and very slim, with a very long torso, and while I love the way my proportions look in my home mirror, I'm usually horribly depressed to see how long and skinny most store mirrors make me look, and Target is definitely the worst for that. The guest bathroom at my parents' house though actually has the most accurate and clear mirror that I've ever seen, and it's always a healthy boost of normalcy to see my reflection in it.
Yup... it's trickery! I returned something once to Anthropologie and the sales person asked if I tried it on in the store. I said yes, and then tried it on at home and it just didn't look the same. He said, oh, it's because we have skinny mirrors! ... and I'm about 100lbs!
If I have a mirror in my apartment that makes me look fat I just lean it at a differnt angle and that usually fixes it.
It makes me wonder if it's the actual mirror that makes me look fat or how the mirror in hung. My last apartment had a mirror that made me look wide but It was attached to the wall and I didn't want to attempt to take it off. Maybe one day I'll test my theory.
I'm surprised that the author of the post neglected to include the myths about glass being a liquid. Because it has molecular properties similar to liquids, it is refered to an amorphorous solid.
When I first understood that there are fat and skinny mirrors, I thought it had to do with the quality of the glass and correlated this the urban myth about glass being the slowest moving liquid in the universe. I did a little reading and busted my own myth.
we have a revolving mirror made by Xavier Lust, and boy,we always, always look good in it
I used to be a professional ballerina which obvious implies that I was super conscious of my body image. To help ease the pain of this the lovely backstage crew (prop guys) wall mounted the mirror that hung right offstage left with a little wood shiv at the base. This made the mirror slightly slant which gave a just barely noticeable slimming effect. Even though I knew of it's existence it was what I needed to abolish any ill thoughts I had of my image so I could step out onto the stage confident and feeling gorgeous!
I'm commenting on this post because I just launched my new product The Skinny Mirror www.theskinnymirrors.com. The reason why I decided to make this mirror is because I pulled an old mirror out of my boyfriends attic three years ago, and for THREE years, it was really messing with the way I saw myself. It made me look just shorter and wider than I was. I've never really been that much of a body conscious person, but over the years I started to ask my boyfriend on a daily basis "I think I'm gaining weight, do I look fat? It's wierd, I feel fat, but my clothes fit the same". He would always say "No! You look skinny! You're trippin'!". I didn't feel confident enough to wear my bikini anymore, didn't feel like dressing cute, I felt unattractive. I knew he would never lie to me but I still doubted him. One day I went to my mom's house and looked in her bedroom mirror and whoa, I looked skinny. She didn't have a skinny mirror, it was a normal mirror. That day I realized it was my mirror making me feel fat and decided to set out on an intense search to find a skinny mirror. I couldn't find them. I knew they existed because retailers have them to trick you into buying their clothes, but I wanted one for home because I knew what a fat mirror did to my self image. I felt strongly about naming it The Skinny Mirror because I didn't want anyone who bought it to be deceived. It just makes you slightly slimmer and slightly taller. One person told me, "It's really how everyone else sees you in the real world, but we are just so critical about our bodies that we can't see what they see, and The Skinny Mirror helps you to be not so critical. It compliments you."
You can now order them from my Etsy Shop for 20%OFF using the code ETSY20 www.etsy.com/shop/theskinnymirror. Contact me if you have any questions!