Once a nerd, always a nerd, so when I read Oprah’s fashion expert had actually developed a mathematical way to accurately determine body type, I HAD to share because it’s not everyday that science gets to meet fashion.
Bradley Bayou is a couture fashion designer who has this down to a science! Literally. Bradley has atelier in Beverly Hills and uses math in order to numerically calculate and determine body shape. This is formula he uses on his celebrity clients to make women of all shapes and sizes look their best with his book The Science of Sexy. There are many other body shapes, but for simplicity and ease of understanding, we used five. So why not let science help me be more glamorous?
Calculate Your Body Shape
Have someone help you measure from the tip of one shoulder all the way around you. The measuring tape should be high up around your shoulders so it almost slips off.
Bust
Pull the measuring tape taut across the fullest part of your bust and around your back. Don’t pull the tape so taut that your breasts start to squish!
Rectangle
(waist ÷ shoulders or bust ≥ .75) Your waist is less than 25% smaller than your shoulders or bust and your bust and hip measurements are within 5% of each other. To figure this out, take your largest measurement and multiply it by 0.95.
Ex. (shoulders x 0.95). Your other two measurements must both be greater than the result of the (largest measurement x 0.95).
Pear
(hips ÷ shoulders or bust ≥ 1.05) Your hips are 5% bigger than your shoulders. You are a triangle/pear otherwise known as larger on the bottom.
Hourglass
(waist ÷ shoulders and bust ≤ 0.75) Your waist is 25% smaller than your shoulder or bust.
(waist ÷ hips ≤ 0.75) Your waist is 25% smaller than your hips and your bust and hip measurements are within 5% of each other. To figure this out, take your largest measurement and multiply it by 0.95.
Ex. (shoulders x 0.95). Your other two measurements must both be greater than the result of the (largest measurement x 0.95).
Apple
(waist ÷ shoulders and bust ≥ 1.05) Your waist is more than 5% bigger than your shoulders or bust and your bust and hip measurements are within 5% of each other. To figure this out, take your largest measurement and multiply it by 0.95.
Ex. (shoulders x 0.95). Your other two measurements must both be greater than the result of the (largest measurement x 0.95).
Without the Math…
- If your shoulders are wider than your hips, you have V-shaped
- If your hips are wider than your shoulders, you have Pear body shape.
- If the width of your shoulders and hips appear to be the same but your waistline is significantly smaller, you have an Hourglass body shape.
- If the width of your shoulders, hips, and waist appear to be the same, you have a Rectangle body shape.
- If the width of your shoulders and hips appear to be the same, but your waistline is significantly wider, you have an Apple body shape.
- If none of the above descriptions apply, you have a Standard shaped body.
- If none of the above descriptions apply to you, you have a Standard shaped body.
