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Body type based on shoulder-waist-hip ratio?

Ingunn

(website)

Veteran

I've always thought of myself as slightly bottom heavy, and my hip measurement is significantly larger than my bust measurement. Consequently I try to dress with this in mind (ie not drawing too much focus on my lower body). Today, however, I read that one should measure the circumference of the shoulders, not bust, and compare that to the hips. My shoulder circumference equals my hip measurement exactly. Since I also have a defined waist, this would clearly make me a hourglass.

What do you think of this? Is it a reasonable way to evaluate body shape? It puzzles me, because my shoulders must have remained very much the same width all my life, whereas my bottom has grown quite a bit during the past few years. Does this mean that I was an inverted triangle as a young girl?? A very new thought!

Body Type

24 replies

Latest reply was from Ingunn

qfbrenda

Veteran

I think I agree with that, though I'm interested in what others say. I know that for me, if I compare my hips and bust I'm close to an hour glass without much of a waist, if such a description exists. But my shoulders are so much wider than my hips that I'm definitely an IT.

I wonder if it depends somewhat on the size of the bust in comparison to everything else?

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Angie relies on the shoulder measurement but tends more to go by an intuitive visual. I would say, based on that, you're an hourglass perhaps slightly tending to pear.

Because I have a small bust i always assumed I was a pear. But in fact, I have broad shoulders, so really, I should have been thinking more as an hourglass! Maybe an hourglass half-empty......

Jules

Veteran

You might have tended IT, but with a defined waist, you probably still looked hourglass too. I see hourglass in your photos btw never pear.
I do understand being self-concious about the hip area however, and I also dress around that even though I am technically an hourglass. I'm also curious whether I was ever truly a pear as I sometimes thought when I was younger/heavier/had different weight distribution!

Mo

(website)

Veteran

I made the same mistake as Suz, comparing my small bust to my ample by comparison hips and thinking I was a pear. Alas, I am an hourglass with a smallish bust.

Raisin

Veteran

I don't think you can go by measurements alone because sometimes a person is very round or very broad but not thick, if that makes sense. So the same measurement can look wide across the front, but be the same as someone who looks like they have a very defined waist, but it's very round all the way around. Am I making sense here.....I know what I'm trying to say.....I guess I mean, with each measurement, the circumference can be a certain number but look totally different from the front depending on the person's build and "thickness" or "broadness".

Mo

(website)

Veteran

Rae, that makes sense. Some people visually carry their weight more front to back, and not side to side.

Raisin

Veteran

Lol, you said it so simply Mo! Thanks!

Ingunn

(website)

Veteran

Yes, I suppose that's how it is. A new theory doesn't change the way we actually look, after all, and it is better to rely on visual judgement than a formula only. Rae, you are so right, and I perfectly understand what you mean. I carry more weight front to back than sideways.

CocoLion

(website)

Veteran

I think it's OK for us to be pears, ladies. Or to have pear tendencies. Perhaps it is, by definition, part of being an hourglass, to have pear tendencies.

More than any other body type, (although perhaps with the exception of apple), there is a lot of energy spent not wanting to be this shape, a pear. This is a feminine shape, my boyfriend loves my shape! Acceptance.

Ingunn

(website)

Veteran

Oh, Denise, I never meant to suggest that being a pear is not okay! I was just puzzled by the idea that shoulder circumference played a part in calculating body shape. The pear is, as you say, a very feminine and desirable shape indeed. I've always thought of myself as one, anyway:)

Mo

(website)

Veteran

I'm just happy if/when my clothes fit and flatter, no matter what fruit or vessel I'm called!! :O

cciele

Veteran

I've kind of given up on the shape classification thing. It helps as a jumping off point, but remembering/following all the guideline can be tedious--particularly if you're not into traditional figure flattery. I just end up going by what I see in the mirror!

CocoLion

(website)

Veteran

Ingunn, here is something that Angie wrote.
http://youlookfab.com/2011/09/.....ilhouette/

Sorry if I came off as judgmental. I am perhaps overly aware of my pear tendencies and trying to be more accepting of my shape.

T-Rex

Veteran

I hadn't thought of the shoulder width being the more important factor, but it makes sense. I, too, have always gone by the impression a person's shape gives me, rather than thinking about bust or even shoulder measurements. Now when I think about it, I realize that if someone has breast augmentation or reduction, it doesn't change their basic body shape. The architecture is still there.

A couple of my friends who are on my "most beautiful women ever" list are pear shapes. They also happen to be belly dancers, and I think their body shapes are perfect for that.

K. Period.

Veteran

I love how Suz characterized it. It really is mainly a judgment based on what the outline of your body looks like and that is dictated by your shoulder width and your hips. But secondarily, you have to look at yourself overall and see how the subjective visual changes your empirical measurements.

I keep thinking of it like this: A gal is smaller boned, with very narrow shoulders, wearing say a size 2 jacket. She's got a very full chest, though. And she's a size 6 bottom. Her measurements would tell you that she's an hourglass if you go by her bust measurement. If you go by her shoulder measurement, you would see her as a clear pear. However, if you looked at her as a whole, you see her as a beautiful, busty pear. (That's one of my BF's by the way.) Add to that the fact that someone with heavier bone structure will look more solid, even at the same size because you have the breadth of those bones mixed into the equation.

Measurements don't tell the whole story.

DonnaF

Veteran

Yes, we are 3D beings, so one can also come away with very different impressions, depending on whether seeing a front view, back view, or profile view. I generally wear a smaller size in skirts and dress pants due to my smallish waist and pancake behind, but follow the guidelines for Pretty Pears as they seem to flatter my shape the best since I carry my weight in my legs. Go figure!

Ingunn, you strike me as extremely well-proportioned and one size throughout, so you could probably break a lot of *rules* and no one would be the wiser!

Day Vies

Veteran

I like the idea of taking the entire body into consideration from an initial visual. Though it is easier to be more objective about someone else's body than your own. I thought i was IT for a long time until I realized that different friends of mine (and 2 past boyfriends) always teasingly referred to me as a bear (teddy bears are soft ROUND and cute). Then it finally hit me that I was an apple because I had a rounded undefined waist.

Agnes

Don't forget that you can have a small bust but a broad rib cage and vice versa. And my bff has a mid size actual bosom but a tiny ribcage and definietly looks pear shaped. To me she looks very feminine.

Mia

Veteran

I always thought I was a "pear" as well but I finally realized that it was kind of a pearish rectangle since my shoulders and hips are the same measurement. I carry a little more weight in my bottom half with muscular legs etc so the dressing guidelines for pears work for me but some of the visual tricks for rectangles do too.

The What Not to Wear girls from Britain describe my body type as a "skittle" whatever that is.

jayne

Veteran

Mia, A skittle is bowling pin shape!

And I am with you ingunn, I have broad shoulders and a definite pearlike bottom, heavy thighs. So I have always thanked my shoulders for giving me balance. My mom doesn't have these shoulders and is clearly a real pear. But Angie set me straight in the beginning and named me an hourglass. I think from the front that is easy to accept. It is from the side that the size of my thighs is visible and from the back that the wide long bottom shows making me more pearlike. Like my sister says, "people see me coming and think 'she has lost weight' but when they see me going they are left with the opposite impression" (she said about herself, but we are alike)

When I weighed more, I gained mostly on my thighs so I looked more a pear. So now I am very interested to see if I can lose weight there since the rest of me is pretty fit now . The boyfriend thinks I will always have that area as the heaviest and I should accept it. He loves the curves. Funny that I cannot get myself to see it the way he does.

T-Rex

Veteran

I thought Skittles were brightly colored candies?

I'm an apple shape. Whenever I gain a few pounds, it seems to hit my belly and waist first. This is why I try (with limited success) to keep my weight on the lower side of the healthy range. It's not that I mind the way my body looks with a few more pounds. I mind the fact that it becomes much harder to find clothes that fit. If something fits in the waist, it will be baggy everywhere else. No one was happier than I was when pants with lower waistlines came into fashion.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Ingunn, I was curious upon reading this and measured my shoulders, and Lo and behold, my shoulders actually measure almost 1" more than my hips. But I have always had relatively full thighs and hips, so that my inherent hourglass shape tends a bit toward pear. I have only recently realized (through the last couple of years of occasionally photographing myself and my outfits) that my body's asymmetry actually means that I am quite literally pear on one half and hourglass on the other. If I were only symmetrical, with both halves shaped like my left half is, it would make dressing much easier! But if wishes were horses and all that.

And to Raisin's point, all my "volume" in the lower half is visible from the front -- from the side view, I'm a lot of chest and very little booty. Ah, bodies are interesting.

I totally agree and embrace that all body types are beautiful and need to embrace our own unique shape. Somehow I grew up with the idea that having big hips and big thighs was unattractive and made me "fat." I'm still fighting this.

Lauren

(website)

As a true pear (my measurements from bust-waist-hip is 36-30-43, visual here: http://bit.ly/VQhXzV) I actually really love the idea of measuring by shoulder width. When I buy clothing and think of balancing out my body, I think about structured shoulders to offset my hips, not my bust as an offset. Shoulders have more of a bearing in balancing out a body than a best in my humble opinion.

Ingunn

(website)

Veteran

A whole lot of interesting observations and thoughts about body shapes! I agree that there is a lot more to this than what we see when facing the mirror. I find my side view a lot more revealing of my age than my front view - I feel this is because all the new weight I've gained since turning 40 (not that much, though), is gathered on my tummy and my rear. I also look bigger from the back than from the front, just the way you explained so eloquently, Jayne. So for me, the best way to dress for a proportional silhouette is to emphasize my waist and shoulders. That said, I think a feminine hip is gorgeous, too! There is something to admire on so many different shapes, and I'm very pleased that we have such diversity between us.