Although I laid out some basic guidelines on how to dress after 40, I feel that it’s even more important that you dress for your body shape. I feel that you can ignore some of the guidelines mentioned there, so long as you know your strengths and dress according to your body type. This is the first in a series of articles on how to dress for your body shape. First of all we need to determine what your body shape is.
So let’s have a look at 5 basic female body shapes.
There are several ways to define your body shape. The most basic way to do it is to determine if you are either a
- Hourglass
- Inverted triangle
- Pear (also called triangle or spoon)
- Rectangle (also called ruler or banana)
- Apple (also called cone or downwards triangle, and in MyProfessionalStylist this shape is actually divided into an oval and a diamond)
How do you find out which one you are?
Characteristics of the hourglass:
- Well defined (narrow) waist
- Hip and bust tend to be almost the same and quite big
Charateristics of the inverted rectangle are:
- Shoulders are wider than the hip
- Bust tends to be proportionally large
- Hips are small
Characteristics of the rectangle are:
- No defined waist
- The hips tend to have a similar width as the shoulders
- You do not have a lot of curves
- Your bust tends to be small or average
Characteristics of the pear:
- The hips are wider than the shoulder
- Fat tends to accumulated on the hips and buttocks
Characteristics of the apple
- No defined waist
- Weight tends to form on the stomach
- Average bust size
Determining your body shape with measurements
If you know the measurements of your bust, waist and hips you can also use this online calculator which will give you a general idea. Please note that we are all diferrent and the 5 mentioned shapes above are just the 5 basic shapes. For example when I changed my bust size with just 1 cm, I got different results. But we are all leaning towards one of these basic shapes and only few of us will be exactly one of these.
In my case I’m lingering between a pear and a rectangle. My hips are wider than my bust and my waist is not so defined. But if I add 1 cm to my bust in the calculator above, I’m defined as a rectangle, because my bust and hip size are quite similar. All this may well change in the future as many women over 40 get a completely different body shape once they go through (peri)menopause, so in that case the style of clothes you chose may have to change as well.
If you want more information on body shapes or if you would like to find out which clothes would be great for your body shape, I recommend trying MyProfessionalStylist. This program helps you to determine both your horizontal body type as well as your vertical type so you will get accurate recommendations on the best clothes to wear for you.
For more information on how to dress for your particular body type you can also read my articles:
- How to dress a pear shape body type
- How to dress the apple shape body type
- How to dress the rectangle shape body type
I hope you got a clearer idea what body type you are? In upcoming articles I will go into more details and look at the styles that work for your body type. So make sure you either subscribe to my mailing list in the box at the right or through RSS.
Image by MyProfessionalStylist
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It looks as though I’m closest to the rectangle, although after losing a lot of weight recently, I have a bit more of a waist. Fun stuff – thank you for sharing!
Tracy (The Wardrobe Wanderer) recently posted..Dressing Room Shenanigans After Ditching the Party
Most people are a combination of 2 different types. Some ‘systems’ even identify 12 body types. I intend to write more about body types, so stay tuned!
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