Meet the Woman Who's Reinventing Shapewear, One Body at a Time

It’s an indisputable fact: Shapewear has come a long, long way from the restrictive and sometimes painful corsets, girdles, and compression garments once worn by our grandmothers and their mothers. In comparison, the stretchy, modern-day version — as exemplified by Spanx — feels radically innovative in its simplicity and relative comfort. Debuting in the early aughts, women were quick to embrace it — turning Spanx’s inventor, Sara Blakely, into a billionaire, and making the brand’s name as synonymous with “shapewear” as Kleenex is to facial tissues.