Men's body types?

Cedar

My Sig O has a strangle shaped body, and I feel like he's constantly buying unflattering, poorly fitting clothes. He's much thinner, and has a better shape, than he appears to be when he's dressed! I should say, I'm not talking behind his back--he knows this, and is very frustrated with his wardrobe.

I'm wondering if there's an equivalent hourglass/pear/etc for men. I'd like to help him find better clothes, and think this would be a good place to start.

17 years ago

Body Type

11 replies

Latest reply was from Cedar

Laura

(website)

Veteran

This is a very interesting question. I hope Angie will answer it when she returns.

Other than inverted triangle and maybe rectangle (for a man without such broad shoulders), I wonder what other shapes men can be?

17 years ago

Nicole

Veteran

I do think men have body shapes, but are probably categorized in a more "masculine" manner and with less variables.

Broad shouldered, narrow hip men fall into an athletic category--because they actually have to buy "athletic cut" clothes to fit. My husband has this build, with the exception of unusually muscular legs because he is a cyclist. But finding shirts that fit his shoulders, but don't hang too loosely on his torso is a challenge--Unless I can find "Athletic Cut" shirts.

Some men are more rectangular--they are not particularly broader in any one area.

Some men carry most of their weight in their mid section--making them the equivalent of an apple.

And some men are bottom heavy--they may not have "hips" the way women have hips, but they may carry more weight in the rears and thighs.

But the option for men's clothing is much more limited than women's clothing. Which is both good and bad, I suppose. It makes it harder to "mask" any body parts they don't like.

17 years ago

Anonymous

Great summary, Nicole. Men have different proportions that seem more obvious than a woman's. They may have a long or short torso, long or short legs, narrow or broad shoulders, and everything in between. For example, my brother and husband may be the same height, but my brother has a long torso and short legs. My husband is more balanced with more of his height in his legs and less in the torso.

17 years ago

Maya

Veteran

Hi Cedar,

Men do indeed have body types. I learned about this when I flipped through Stacey and Clinton's book "Dress Your Best." Here are the ones I remember:

-Barrel chested
-Hips--kind of like what Nicole was saying
-Athletic
-Small frame (just as a side note...the guy they used as an example for this body type was really cute and they dressed him spectacularly)
-Tummy

I don't remember the detailed descriptions of each but I think they're pretty self explanatory. There might also be more than what I listed but I don't have the book so I can't look it up. It might be a good place to start (along with Angie, of course).

17 years ago

shiny

Veteran

Hmmm, if it were me, I'd label it something like:

1) Football player (broad shoulders - inverted triangle)

2) Hockey player (muscular thighs and well-defined butt, from all the side-to-side motions required by the sport)

3) Runner or biker (lean and wiry, with low body fat %, less developed upper body than lower body, forward repetitive motion of running leads to very sexy man-legs!! ... this is my favorite manly body type of all

4) Teddy bear (much nicer way to say "apple"!!! cuddly)

5) Heroine-chic/goth-guy (very lean with underdeveloped muscles but kinda has a thing going too!)

As for the vertical proportions, my brother - and all my male relatives - have proportionately short legs for their height. My DH is relativley long-legged. Despite him being 10 inches taller than me, we have good "hip-to-lip" ratio, as my mother calls it.

DH is a biker so he is very lean. He needs a Medium in sweaters and tops, but refuses to wear them because, as he says, "Men are supposed to wear Larges." Even though I have proven to him that what used to be a Large is now an XL, and what used to be a Medium is now a Large (Yes there is vanity sizing in men's clothing too).

17 years ago

Ana

(website)

Veteran

Lol Shiny--interesting categorizations. Brendan is definitely a tall apple/teddy bear. And cuddly too!

Thanks for asking the question Cedar! I was kind of wondering the same thing.

17 years ago

shiny

Veteran

Cedar, I am going to guess, since you say he looks much better unclothed than clothed, that it's really all about fit for him. Are you in the US?

Unless you can be more specific, I doubt he has a "strangely shaped body" .... it's probably the clothes, NOT his body. And my heart goes out to him, because for decades I thought it was something wrong with by body too. Now I realize there's nothing wrong with my body - it's the clothes. Off-the-rack clothes are cut for "average" bodies which means very few people actually fit in them.

It may be that he is simply fit and at ideal weight, but that the clothes are designed for the 70% of the market in the US who are overweight.

My DH struggles with this too: by the BMI charts, he is at ideal BMI. Our fancy electronic scale tells him he has the Body Mass of a 21 year old (and he's 45). Yet, in this society, he feels "scrawny." He's not - he's simply fit and healthy!! He bike-commutes daily and doesn't spend a minute in a gym, preferring to work his muscles in the garden and around the house lifting heavy things in the course of doing productive tasks.

It is hard for him to find clothing off-the-rack. That's one of the reasons why he has a penchant for vintage clothing (I say "vintage" but I mean clothes from the early 80s). Clothing was made smaller back then, because people were smaller. That was before the gymrat boom, and before the obesity epidemic.

Seriously... go into TJMaxx or Marshall's.... and try to find a Medium sweater or sweatshirt. The racks will be flowing with L, XL, XXL, and XXXL. Then remember that men's clothing is affected by vanity sizing too, so that Large is what used to be an XL.

I am assuming that you are in the US... if you took your SO on a getaway to europe, where people tend to be slimmer, he may come back feeling much more positive about his body. I know DH felt much better after two weeks in Paris seeing men his size and shape wearing beautifully cut dress shirts that actually fit in the shoulders and weren't loose. (Not that I can get him IN one of these shirts quite yet... but I can still wish.... )

P.s. I hope it's obvious to everyone on YLF that while I have a definite preference, I'm a firm lover of men in any and all shapes and sizes.

17 years ago

Nicole

Veteran

Shiny, I love your categories and I love how you used sports to define most of the body types. Very clever marketer you are!!

17 years ago

BLB

(website)

Active Member

LOL, I love the phrase "hips-to-lips ratio", Shiny!

This is really interesting... I'm thinking my DH has the "athletic" body type, too. It's difficult to find shirts that fit him in both the neck/shoulders and torso. We were the Bay the other day (checking out prices for dress clothes--he'll be doing job interviews at colleges soon. Holy toldeo, nice clothes for men are so EXPENSIVE!) and one of the salesmen measured him and said he needs to look for "slim fit" shirts, because he's slim through the torso. Clairborne and Hilfiger were the suggested brands. This fit seems tricky to find, but it sure looks wonderful on him.

17 years ago

Ellen

Active Member

Excellent descriptions, Shiny! My husband played hockey all his life and reached a high level, so he definitely struggles with fit in the butt and thigh area. He is very active and has a muscular upper body, but it's not bulky (which I'm glad for... I don't like bulk much!) and his legs and back end are very muscular. Makes for one attractive man and one tough time finding jeans. I am willing to help him go through the trouble, though.

I think that in men's clothes, as in womens, it's about finding a brand that works for you. Even more for men than women maybe, because they often aren't looking for as much variety and they are a bit easier to fit, for the most part. My husband loves Old Navy and most of the clothes there fit him perfectly and work with his athletic lifestyle. He does well with brands such as Dockers for more dressy items. Old Navy cuts some of their pant brands quite loosely in the thighs.

Cedar, I think it would be worth taking your SO to the mall and spending a day trying different brands to see what works. I did this with my DH and it was very worthwhile. You may find that one shirt brand works and a different one for pants, but once you know this, shopping can be a lot easier. If he's a slender build has he tried GAP clothes? They often don't like spending this time, but do it on a day when you're not rushed, in a good mood, and can stop for a fun lunch and coffee and things might go better. This is my experience anyway.

17 years ago

Cedar

Active Member

Wow--I wasn't expecting this many responses.

shiny--he is a little funny looking, in my opinion (I say it with love!). He's quite thin, but has that stereotypical Eastern European broad shoulders and thick chest (I wouldn't call him barrel chested, tho) thing going on. He has a very long torso and long arms as well, which makes finding shirts for him difficult. I suppose his basic shape would be the "swimmer's build", although that's not exactly right. Slimmer cut shirt pull awkwardly in the shoulders, but looser cuts sag and hang on him. And most of his shirts and sweaters don't quite reach his wrists (Calvin Klein is one of the few brands that fit him decently; I'm always scouring ebay for things I think he'd like).

European cut clothes do look better on him than the American cut, we've found; pants in this cut fit particularly well. Unfortunately, those tend to be difficult to find in the US, especially on our budget.

Maya--thanks for the tip on the book. I requested it from the library.

17 years ago

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