It’s What’s Underneath That Counts

You want a Vera Wang “waist,” but you can’t afford one of her gowns, and, besides, you have more pressing problems:

Dad wants to bring your soon-to-be stepmom, Tiffany--as long as she’s on spring break anyway. Mummy and Lars are decidedly miffed. Your in-laws are feuding over the guest list. And you’ve spent the last six months finding comfort in ice cream and potato chips--and we don’t mean the baked kind.

How can you possibly look like a fairy princess if you have a huge waist?

Fear not. The cure is in what goes underneath your dress.

“Undergarments are very underrated. On your wedding day, I think it’s really important to get that part right,” says Jeannine Braden, a stylist for music videos.

“I would go to a specialized department. I wouldn’t expect anybody to know it on their own,” she says.

Braden, also owner of the Fred Segal Santa Monica Flair shops, is used to making rockers look thinner, and, at times, more voluptuous. Brides are no different, she says.

Find a full-service lingerie department of a store, she advises, especially one that is used to dealing with brides. Many brides will end up wearing corsets, but there are alternatives, such as full-body girdles.

A few designers, like Vivienne Westwood, sew a corset into the gown, she says. And many bridal shops also sell undergarments that are right for the gown.

If all else fails, Braden suggests two places that do know undergarments--Frederick’s of Hollywood and Trashy Lingerie on La Cienega in Los Angeles. “Those people are pros, it’s their business.”

Miss Stevens in Beverly Hills also does custom-designed undergarments.