Marks & Spencer has launched a £28 "hip boost" bodysuit featuring padded inserts designed to create an exaggerated hourglass silhouette, joining a growing trend of shapewear that adds volume rather than compresses it. The product mirrors padded shorts sold by Kim Kardashian's Skims brand and reflects a wider cultural moment in which both catwalk designers and celebrities are using padding, corsetry and surgery to reshape bodies at a time when GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and cosmetic procedures have already made physiques more malleable than ever.

The bodysuit has pockets on each hip allowing wearers to insert enhancing pads, similar to bra "chicken fillet" inserts, and follows earlier M&S products such as padded bum shorts and stick-on nipples. M&S's lingerie director, Charlotte Davies, said the design responds to customer demand for "subtle enhancement", while designers including Schiaparelli's Daniel Roseberry and houses such as Dior and Alaïa have used padding and historical panniers to alter proportions on the runway. Commentators cited in the piece, including academic Victoria Pitts-Taylor and psychotherapist Susie Orbach, note the trend has historical precedent going back to the Tudors and Georgians, but warn it also pressures ordinary people to constantly "create a body" to match an increasingly unattainable ideal.