Body shapers are changing how women feel

"It makes you more comfortable in your own size." Co-owner Wendy Wilcox says women buy them to wear under everything, from suits and white pants to wedding dresses. "They're functional, especially in the winter," Wilcox says.

"You can still wear your strappy shoes yet you have a nylon for warmth and support. They are breathable and suck you in, yet the waist band is engineered so it doesn't dig into your stomach. No panty lines, no cellulite.

" While Avenue and other plus-size retailers promote body shapers, they're for people of any size, not just those struggling to wriggle into too-tight skirts. At La Petite Coquette, the trendy New York City boutique, owner Rebecca Apsen has sold body shapers to Cindy Crawford, Ellen Barkin and Brazilian bombshell Sonia Braga. Or as she puts it, "Everyone.

" "I'd say the smaller girls buy them even more," says Apsan, author of "The Lingerie Handbook," (Workman, $13.95), which features a chapter on shapewear titled "What Lies Beneath." Tyra Banks once lifted her skirt on television to show off her slimmer.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Diane Sawyer and Beyonce Knowles are also advocates. Jessica Alba recently told the ladies of "The View" that Spanx High-falutin' Footless Body-Shaping Pantyhose helped her fit into her "Fantastic Four" costume. "They're for showing off the body and clothes, not lumps and bumps," Apsan says.

Last week, the midsection-smoothing Higher Power, Oprah's favorite, came in at No. 13 of the store's 25 best selling items. Apsen says the popularity of body shapers began with the fitness craze of late 1980s, when fashion became more body-conscious.

But Joanne Stoner, CEO of Edressme.com, says it was more recent than that. Try six years ago, when a woman named Sara Blakely couldn't find footless control-top panty hose to wear under pants and with open-toe shoes.

So, she designed the undergarment herself. "Suddenly it was OK to wear something to hold you in, especially among the younger (18-35) market," Stoner says. "At the same time, support and control top stockings declined so you didn't have them to give you shape.

Blakely has since made $100 million with Spanx, her line of more than 100 sassy-titled body shapers and slimming apparel that start at $20 and are sold at boutiques and department stores. Last year, she launched Assets, a line at Target that's about half the price. Since then, sales of shapewear have jumped 26 percent, according to NPD Group, a market research company.

It's now a $740 million industry. Still, not everyone is a fan. Janay McCullough of Concord wore a midsection-to-thigh body shaper to a friend's wedding.

She was relieved at the end of the reception. "It gave me that overall thing I was going for, but if you're in it for a long time, it can get uncomfortable," says McCullough. Suzy Teke, who was recently shopping in Broadway Plaza, has a friend who wears Spanx and Teke does admire her smooth lines.

But body shapers just aren't the right fit for this mountain-reared Fairfield resident. "I'm a little too natural I think," she says. "I like to let it all hang out.

" Reach Jessica Yadegaran at jyadegaran@cctimes.com. "It makes you more comfortable in your own size.