Horizontal stripes makes one look fat, is the conclusion of a new study being taken out by an amateur. Val Watham, 53, decided to carry out a research on the topic, after she found some problems in the work of Dr. Peter Thompson.

Dr. Thompson is a senior lecturer in psychology and works in the University of York. He took out a research in 2008 and concluded that horizontal stripes makes one look slim. Val was unconvinced from Thompson’s finding and decided to carry out a research.

Val took the help of fashion students and prepared the clothes in different stripes for models. She then asked 500 people to watch these models, who were wearing different striped clothes and asked them to judge their appearance.

After assessing all the models, it was revealed that models wearing horizontal stripes looked thickest among all the other models, and models looked tall in vertical striped clothes and models, who wore same colored clothes from head to toe, looked quite thin.

Val’s research has led her win first prize in BBC's Amateur Scientist of the Year competition. Judges, who evaluated her research said, "A lovely idea which was well executed, had clear results and leads on to further research. You can't ask more from a science experiment”.