Lizzo has become a name synonymous with the body-positive movement, as she’s created music and an Amazon Prime TV show that make statements about fatphobia, self-love and aim to foster more inclusivity. Now, her latest business venture works to challenge those norms even further as the singer makes her debut in fashion with her very own shapewear line, Yitty.
The 33-year-old told The New York Times that she began to think about shapewear when she was a young teen, as she started to learn about the ways in which society wanted her to feel “ashamed of” her body, and later went on her own creative journey to oppose that notion.
Alongside creating music and tapping into her talent, Lizzo said she began to “have fun with my body, creating shapes and allowing my body to be curvaceous, loving the rolls that you’re supposed to hide, and exploring through fashion.” But shapewear and the ideals defining it were directly challenging that.
“Shapewear was one of those untouched constructs in fashion people weren’t really messing with — or thinking about,” she recalled, noting that it was an area of fashion that hadn’t yet included her. “At a certain point, I started to make my own little pieces: little moments here, little moments there, little booty lift here. I wanted to share that.”
Even more so, as Lizzo has gained popularity and recognition for her style, she wanted to make sure that all of the things she had access to would be accessible to all women her size.
“I don’t want to be the only one who can enjoy autonomy with my body because I am now in [a] privileged position where people want to make me stuff and I can afford it,” she said. “I want to help other people out in that way too, so they’re not just looking at me and thinking, ‘Damn, I wish I could afford custom thousand-dollar pieces.'”
She continued, “It was important for me when I wear it and model it, I am not looking different than I normally look. You see my rolls and see a belly, and sometimes you see me in super-high compression. A lot of times I will do red carpets and not wear shapewear at all, or not wear a bra. It depends on how I feel. You see me as I want you to see me.”
She also hopes to change the conversation around shapewear and intimates, allowing for it to be more about self-acceptance rather than catering to external beauty standards.
“More than I’m selling bodysuits or I’m selling shapewear, I’m selling a mentality that ‘I can do what I want with my body, wear what I want and feel good while doing it,'” she said. “I’m trying to revolutionize shapewear and our relationship with it and with our bodies.”
It’s the intention behind the line that makes it “something personal to me, something for the baby version of me,” Lizzo said. Not to mention that its name, Yitty, is a nod to the nickname she’s had since she was young.
“When I was born, my brother could not say [Lizzo’s real name] ‘Melissa,’ so he would go, ‘Meyitta,’ and my Auntie Carmen would go, ‘Did he call her Yitty?’ From then on it was ‘Yitty, Yitty,'” she explained. “Sadly, my auntie passed in May of 2020, and a few months later, I decided to call this Yitty in her honor. She would have loved this, she would have been so proud.”
Beyond her auntie, Lizzo wants to make people everywhere proud of not only her product but how they feel in it.
“I want to be a world changer,” she said. “This is something I’m building that can hopefully last for generations — not just the company or the product, but the mentality of Yitty. This idea of liberation with your body and being able to express it in different ways can go so, so far.”
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