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Body shape guide
Hourglass body shape
An hourglass reading means your shoulders and hips measured close to equal, with the waist clearly narrower than both. Top and bottom are balanced, so the waist is the line that shapes the whole silhouette.
- Shoulder / hip
- 0.95 – 1.05
- Waist / hip
- below 0.75
How to tell
- Shoulders and hips within about five percent of each other
- A waist that measures noticeably narrower than both
- Shoulder-to-hip ratio between 0.95 and 1.05
- Waist-to-hip ratio below 0.75
- Width sits at the bust and the hips, not the middle
What tends to work
- Anything fitted through the waist, since that is the line doing the work
- Belts and defined waistbands, which restate what is already there
- Wrap dresses and V-necklines
- High-waisted trousers and skirts
- A-line skirts that fall from the narrowest point
What to watch for
Boxy or straight-cut pieces hide the waist and read the silhouette as a rectangle. If a jacket has no shaping, a belt over it usually fixes it.
Often confused with
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Rectangle →
When a loose top hides the waist, the reading shifts to rectangle.