How to Select Your Body Shape

Certainly you’ve heard all those freaky fruity terms some folks use to describe a woman’s body shape. Things like apple, pear – and even banana. Please. It’s totally unflattering to have our beautiful body shapes compared to piece of fruit (and all shapes are beautiful, by the way). So when it comes to selecting your body shape, the first thing we need to do is update the terms.

Women’s body shapes typically fall into one of five different categories. These are:

• • Circle
  • Triangle
  • Rectangle
  • Inverse Triangle
  • Hourglass

Sure, you can attempt to gauge your body shape in a variety of ways. You can look in the mirror. You can ask 10 random people on the street. Heck, you can even draw the five different shapes in chalk on the sidewalk and then lie down in each to determine which matches best. Or you can do it the old-fashioned. You can measure.

How to Measure to Select Your Body Shape

First, get a reliable tape measure (the soft and flexible kind, preferably in teal or pink). Second, get a pal. It’s so much easier to measure certain parts of your body with help. Third, stand straight and tall like you’re about to march in a parade or something. Then measure four key body areas.

• • Shoulders
  • Bust
  • Waist
  • Hips

Shoulders. Place the end of the measuring tape at the corner of one shoulder, then wrap it around the other shoulder and back to the starting point. Make sure the tape is at the widest area of your shoulders, which is at the very top.

Bust. Wrap the measuring tape across your back, bringing the end in front of you in the middle of your bust. Pull the measuring tape snug, but not snug enough to squish.

Waist. Here you want to wrap the tape around the smallest part of your natural waist. Place the tape around your back, keeping it flat against your skin, bringing the end to the front to meet the tape slightly above your belly button.

Hips. Place the tape on one of your hips, right below the hip bone. You want to hit the fullest part of the hips. Wrap the tape around the biggest part of your butt, around the other hip, then back to the starting point.

Use Measurements to Determine Body Shape

The measurements you recorded for your shoulders, bust, waist and hips can help you determine your body shape’s category. And there’s absolutely no fruit involved.

• • Circle: The circle shape is indicated by a waist measurement that’s notably larger than your shoulders and hips.
  • Triangle: The triangle shape is one in which your hips have a wider measurement than your shoulders.
  • Rectangle: The rectangle shape is distinguished by the same or very close measurements for your shoulders, but and hips, without a defined waistline.
  • Inverse Triangle: Here your shoulders or bust measurement is bigger than your hip measurement.
  • Hourglass: Shoulders and hips have similar measurements, and the waistline is smaller and noticeably defined.

Why Bother with this Body Shape Stuff?

Now that you’ve accurately measured key body areas and determined your body shape, you may be asking “Now what?” Or better yet, “So what?”

Knowing your body shape can be extremely helpful when it comes to picking out clothes that are comfortable, flattering and make you look and feel like a zillion bucks. In other words, knowing how to dress for your shape can leave you invigorated with a thing I like to call Look Confidence.

What the Heck is Look Confidence?

Look Confidence is the magical feeling you get when your clothes are serving their highest purpose, or doing their job to make you look and feel great. To have Look Confidence, three different needs must be met. You must have:

• • Fit: You want the right fit, no matter what the numerical sizing says on today’s crazy vanity sizing across different brands.
  • Shape: Clothing that aligns with your body shape will drape where it’s supposed to drape, and gather where it’s supposed to gather (not the other way around).
  • Validation: Since our own minds are biased and can sometimes skew the reality of how we look, feedback from other women similar to us is important.

Getting all three of these needs met may be easier than you think, thanks to a new app coming down the pike. The app is called LookyLoo, and you use it with the LookyLoo platform to help ensure Look Confidence with each and every clothing purchase.

LookyLoo lets you post selfies of clothes you’re thinking about buying, vote on selfies posted by other women, and enjoy the personal attention of Lucy, the AI-powered stylist. AI Lucy gets smarter and smarter the more you engage with LookyLoo, eventually becoming your very own personal stylist.

Not only is Lucy savvy and bright, but she knows a thing or two about body shapes. And now you do, too. That means you can move forward and choose flattering styles based on a practical description of your body shape -- and not one that likens you to an apple, pear or banana.