Vitabrace/Manly

I was very happy to read yesterday that Sara Blakely, founder and owner of Spanx, has become the youngest female to make it onto the Forbes rich list. Just a shame that she has made it as a manufacturer of slimming underwear, rather than, say, radiators or lightbulbs, or a cure for dementia. There have, of course, been variations on the theme of figure-improving under-garments for decades. These were aimed overwhelmingly at women (naturally!) and very often went some way beyond improvement and a good way into deformation. I was delighted, therefore, to read that men can and do also buy Spanx, that a pair of Spanx briefs will make a man 'look sharper, stand taller and feel stronger', and that there is a wonderful pair of photos on the Spanx website, demonstrating the 'Not Handsome' versus 'Handsome' effect of the product. So to the point! Whereas the language used in the two advertisements above (from 'Wide World', an English periodical aimed at the armchair adventurer, and dating from the fifties) tends to stress 'medical' benefits. They are, however, rather charming, though the mind boggles somewhat at the thought of a hand-knitted Vitabrace.