How to Determine Your Body Shape Without Measuring | Style Tips Includ

What are the five most common body types?

There are five common body types you may think of, none being better or worse than another.

• Round / apple: this is when your waist is larger than your bust area .

• Inverted triangle / spoon / lollipop: your shoulders are wider than your waist and hips

• Pear or triangle: your hips are wider than your waist, shoulders and bust.

• Rectangle: your bust, waist, and hips are all similar in size.

• Hourglass: your shoulders and hips are similar in size, but your waist is smaller.

How can I find out what my body type is?

There are a few different ways you can find your body type— you can use measurements or you can look at your body shape in the mirror.

Measuring: There are three main areas you will measure using a measuring tape.

• Bust: This is the largest part of your chest and rib cage. It tends to be closest to your nipple for most women.

• Waist:This is the part above your pelvis and under your rib cage near your belly button, not where your pants meet your shirt. You can find this by bending sideways and placing your hand in the crease where your body folds.

• Hips: Thus is the widest part around your butt.

You can use your best judgement based on how the numbers compare to each other OR there’s a really great website that calculates your body size for you based on your measurements.

Looking in the mirror: wearing fitted clothing or non at all, look in the mirror.

• If you were to take a photo and trace around your body with a marker, what shape would it make? That’s your body size.

You can use a variery of things to draw eyes to areas you want to accentuate.

Hemlines: The length of your blouse, jacket, or pant leg breaks up areas that drag.

Color and print: Color makes everything pop! Having color or prints in places you want to highlight draws eyes to that area.

Embellishments: pearls, buttons, ties, ruching and more! Consider where there’s are places. Do they draw attention to areas you want to avoid drawing attention to?

Lines: This includes necklines as well as stripes. Plunging necklines will give you an elongated effect. Crew necklines give the look of a longer torso, too.

Historically, hotizontal strips are said to give you a wider appearance. I agree, but cautiously. I always lean towards a vertical stripe, but if your horizontal strips are wide, different colors, etc it doesn’t necessarily have the same affect. Be conscious of how stripes can affect your eyes.

How can you use your body type to your advantage?

Accentuating certain body parts draws your eyes away from other parts. If you want to draw attention away from your shoulders, accentuating your waist will draw eyes to other parts that you want to show off.

Your body shape in no way determines your worth. But, you can use the understanding of what you want to accentuate and what you don’t to dress in ways that make you look and feel amazing!

Coming Soon:

• guides on dressing each body part
• what to buy this season for your body type