TikToker’s ‘illusion’ dress makes it seem like she ‘cut [her]self in half’

A TikToker discovered that a dress she recently bought created an illusion that, when worn with the right background, would baffle her viewers. Influencer Jem (@xojemian) bought the dress off of Fashion Nova because she simply liked the pattern. But when she tried it on, the pattern made it look like she was suddenly half her size. "Trying the viral waist illusion dress," she captioned the video. In the video, which has since racked up almost 3 million views, Jem ties the straps on the sides of her bodycon dress, and her waist seems to shrink instantly. The ties seem to be stretching in a curved shape that, with the pattern and Jem's dark background, makes it seem like her waist is shrinking instead of just the fabric moving. The visual freaked out some commenters. "It looked like you almost cut yourself in half for a second," someone wrote. "My brain can't comprehend," another agreed