Hi °C | Lo °C WEARING horizontal stripes really does make you look fatter, an amateur scientist has found.
Val Watham (53) was unconvinced by research which claimed horizontal stripes flatter the figure.
She undertook her own research, dressing models in a variety of striped designs and asking members of the public to rate their appearance.
The findings demonstrated that horizontal stripes make people appear wider, while vertical stripes make people appear taller.
Mrs Watham's experiment won the BBC's Amateur Scientist of the Year award yesterday, beating over 1,000 other entrants.
The judges described it as "a lovely idea which was well executed, had clear results and leads on to further research".
"You can't ask more from a science experiment."
The experiment also proved another fashion dictum: models who wore all black outfits were deemed to be the slimmest of all.
hnews@herald.ie
