List of All Articles with Tag 'pce'

Addison Rae showcased her talents while showing off her abs and toned body in a sports bra and slacks

Investigators paid a visit at Nicki Minaj's LA mansion after the caller notified child services that her son was in danger

As Ukrainian troops probe Russian defenses, Kyiv’s forces face an enemy that has made mistakes and suffered setbacks in the 15-month-old war

Tony Awards 2023 was a balance of colors and conventions as these stars dazzled the night with their too-good-to-be-true outfits

Joe Rogan gave his opinion on Target's LGBTQIA+ controversy on 'The Joe Rogan Experience' podcast

Tom Brady's children joined him on MrBeast's Yacht video and thought that their father would not be able to break the drone in one shot

In a number of scenes in 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, our heroine – a thirtysomething singleton played by Renée Zellweger – squashes the skin of her lower torso into an array of Lycra shapewear, all in an attempt to make herself appear slimmer. When Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver sets his eyes on her high-wasted, nude-coloured underpants in one memorable scene, Bridget blushes with embarrassment. “Well, hello mummy,” Daniel purrs. At the time of the film’s release, control shapewear – or tummy-tucking underwear designed to smooth its wearer – was marketed predominantly at people like Bridget, someone who was told by society she was “fat” or undesirable unless she had a flat stomach. Today, though, shapewear is branded differently, marketed to young women as a sexy, must-have fashion accessory. Shapewear products are not only promoted as stomach-smoothing fixes, but for anyone who wants a narrow waist or their figure to resemble a contoured, Kardashian-style hourglass. Skims, Kim Kardashian’s self-owned shapewear brand that she founded in 2019, sells viral sculpting bodysuits geared towards achieving this particular body shape. They start at £70. Since the launch of Skims, as with anything that a member of the Kardashian clan wears or makes, fast fashion knock-offs have swelled the market. Online retailer PrettyLittleThing, which has a murky track record of contributing to a harmful cycle of fast fashion, sells duplicates of the Skims viral bodysuit for around £20. They also sell waist trainers – a corset-style casing worn underneath clothes to aggressively teach your waist to be narrow – for just £12. “Doll cinch your waist in an instant with this waist trainer,” the item’s description reads. The product has boning to make it stiff and restrictive. Venture onto TikTok and you’ll find viral dresses with Spanx-style shapewear, designed to minimise the width of a person’s waist and accentuate their bottom, built into the clothing itself. While Skims is not solely responsible for this recent boom in shapewear, it has contributed to transforming how we view it – Bridget’s “granny pants” are now glamorous and aspirational. For the brand’s latest collection, for example, buzzy British singer-songwriters Raye and PinkPantheress were enlisted to promote it, along with viral Bronx rapper Ice Spice. The resulting campaign wouldn’t look out of place in the pages of Vogue. What this marketing tells us is that fashion isn’t just about the garments you wear, but the apparently malleable shape of the body on which they’re worn. Early shapewear emerged in the 16th century, not as a trend or body sculpting device, but for practical support. Karolina Laskowska, a lingerie designer and director of the underwear archive The Underpinnings Museum, tells me that the primary purpose of shapewear back then was to support the body much in the same way that a contemporary bra is made to support the breasts today. “A pair of stays [a corset style bodice] would have offered bust and back support for women who worked,” she explains. “These styles were more functional and supportive, rather than trend-driven.” The beginnings of the shapewear we see today were first seen in the Sixties, when the invention of Lycra, a synthetic-based elastic fibre, allowed for stretchier fabrics. What Laskowska dubs the grandparent of modern shapewear was the “Little X Girdle” by a British brand called Silhouette. “It was a turning point for a shift from traditional structured corsetry into elasticated shapewear,” she says. The item was a seamless, pull-on girdle – an elasticated corset extending from waist to thigh – and was eventually licenced to sell in over 32 countries as turnover increased exponentially. We then saw the evolution of more comfortable, everyday shapewear, like those made by Spanx, an American brand founded in 2000. They’re so uncomfortable, but they’re so afraid of what others will think about them due to their body size Victoria Kleinsman By contrast, modern shapewear is now geared towards sculpting the body to appear differently underneath clothes. And now, fast fashion is getting involved, too. But lingerie designers like Laskowska are increasingly worried about the consumer physically “hurting” themselves with badly made undergarments. “We’ve seen fast fashion adopt corsetry and shapewear trends but it’s not made to fit the human anatomy, since it’s made to be as cheap as possible,” she says. She adds that people could “injure” themselves with elasticated shapewear if they buy a size too small, meaning they could potentially restrict their blood’s circulation. Victoria Kleinsman, a self-esteem expert and body love coach, works with women between the ages of 13 to 60, and says that she’s seen how her younger clientele are feeling the pressure to wear shapewear in order to conform to the cult of thinness. Some clients have bought pantyhose with built-in cushioning to make the bottom look larger and perkier. Others will wear layers of shapewear to sculpt the body, particularly the waist and stomach, to look slimmer or flatter. To Kleinsman, wearing modern shapewear allows people to apply an “IRL [Instagram] filter” to their bodies. She speaks to women each day who are “crying” to her on Zoom calls because they’re worried about what their bodies look like. “It’s to the point when it’s boiling hot weather [but] they’re wearing spandex shapewear and tights, and they’re so uncomfortable, but they’re so afraid of what others will think about them due to their body size.” The expert fell into her line of work after she struggled with an eating disorder – she also wore a waist trainer when she was dealing with her own body image issues. “I would go to the gym wearing it because apparently you ‘sweat more’ and therefore lose ‘water fat’,” she says. “Which is b******! It’s physically painful to your physical body and even more painful to your emotional and mental well-being.” Kleinsman doesn’t think that this type of elasticated shapewear has anything to do with fashion and it should not be marketed as such. “It’s really dangerous,” she tells me. “Shapewear gives you a fake ‘confidence’ but then underneath it all when that comes off, then, who are you?” The popularity of Skims and their various knock-offs doesn’t seem likely to decline any time soon, but Kleinsman is hopeful that more women will soon have epiphanies about the shapewear revival. “Fatphobia and body image trauma is still the norm,” she sighs. “There has never been more [appropriate] a time for us to embrace our natural bodies.” Read More ‘The models are skinnier than ever’: Has London Fashion Week stopped caring about body diversity? Hostage to fashion: Margot Robbie’s Chanel problem speaks to a wider red carpet crisis Jeans shopping is still a total nightmare Kim Kardashian says Kris Jenner gets ‘sad’ thinking of how fame changed her family Kanye West and wife Bianca Censori cause confusion with Sunday Service outfits Chanel’s classic 1926 little black dress added to fashion exhibition in Scotland

Ginger Zee missed the morning show due to a prestigious fundraiser for which she was also the keynote speaker

The popularity of Donald Trump rose among Americans despite him becoming the first president to be indicted twice, while Joe Biden’s favourability marked a decline, according to a latest poll The poll suggested that the ex-president was consolidating more and more support from the people who believe his federal indictment was politically motivated at a time when he is running for the White House and is considered as the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Mr Trump emerged as the favourable choice of 31 per cent of people, marking a six per cent rise from April, a poll by ABC News and Ipsos conducted after his second indictment suggested. Mr Biden’s popularity was tied with Mr Trump, with 31 per cent of people finding him a favourable choice. His ratings marked a decline of three per cent, hitting an all time low since 2020, in what was the worst indication for the president who launched his re-election bid for 2024 elections. The survey was conducted on 9-10 June with 910 people interviewed on a range of questions, including their view on criminal charges brought against the former president. Mr Trump was continuing to consolidate support even after his first indictment in New York in alleged hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and his latest in the classified documents case. A federal grand jury indicted the former president on 8 June on charges stemming from his alleged unlawful retention of national defence information. The 49-page indictment was unsealed on Friday (9 June), revealing 37 counts against the ex-president. His favourability correlated with how people felt about charges bought against him. Around 47 per cent of people said the charges against Mr Trump were politically motivated, compared to 37 per cent who did not see politics behind the indictments. At the same time, more people wanted Mr Trump to be charged and held accountable for federal felonies than those who believe he should not be. Nearly half – 48 per cent of Americans – said Mr Trump should have been charged in the cases while 35 per cent voted against it. In his first public address since the Department of Justice unsealed its indictment, Mr Trump called the charges “ridiculous and baseless” returning to the campaign trail. “This is a political hit job. Republicans are treated far different at the Justice Department than Democrats,” Mr Trump claimed at a state GOP convention in Columbus. “They’re cheating, they’re crooked, they’re corrupt – these criminals cannot be rewarded, they must be defeated.” Read More Trump, allies escalate attacks on criminal case as history-making court appearance approaches Is Donald Trump going to prison? Watch as hundreds of Trump supporters gather in Florida after indictment of ex-president Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

After it was revealed that Amy Seimetz would no longer be directing 'The Idol', Sam Levinson took over

Ukrainian forces have claimed their first successes in a long-anticipated counteroffensive, as they recaptured three villages from Russian forces in the southeast of the country on Sunday. If confirmed it would mean the first week of its pushback against Moscow ended in tangible territorial gains for Ukraine. Unverified footage showed Kyiv’s forces hoisting the Ukrainian flag at a building in the village of Blahodatne in Donetsk region and posing with their unit’s flag in the adjacent village of Neskuchne. The troops also reportedly retook Makarivka, the next village to the south, and advanced between 300m and 1,500m in two directions on the southern front, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said in a statement. Success has also been seen in the Bakhmut direction, the minister said. Volodymyr Zelensky praised Ukrainian troops last night and said: “Of course, I am thankful to our soldiers for this day”. The long-expected counteroffensive was indirectly confirmed by Vladimir Putin on Friday, who said that a Ukrainian military push was underway, but had failed to breach Russian defensive lines and taken heavy casualties. Read More Ukraine claims first successes of counteroffensive as it recaptures three villages Ukraine's dam collapse is both a fast-moving disaster and a slow-moving ecological catastrophe Musician Travis Leake spoke up about freedom of speech in Russia with Anthony Bourdain in 2014. Now he’s been detained

Hannah Waddingham will star in 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 2' while Juno Temple is getting ready to shoot for 'Venom 3'