Ever wonder why an outfit just looks great on someone, even though you don’t particularly like the clothes? That’s usually because of the proportions of that look. When an outfit is balanced, it looks proportional, and we’re attracted to this kind of correspondence.
While it is quite important to figure out your body shape – your overall body proportions is just as fundamental as the shape of your body. If one part is bigger or smaller than the other, you will need to balance this out to visually change the apparent difference in size and length. Read on to find out more on how to know your proportions better.
Take a picture
Take a picture of yourself in your underwear, or completely naked, from the front, side and back. To do this properly, place the camera at mid-body height. If you don’t have a tripod, try using a chair, a table, some stacked boxes or whatever you have available. Ensure that the lens is level and not leaning upwards or downwards as this may distort the picture, making parts of your body look longer or shorter. Stand as you usually do and try to focus your lighting in front of you and not on the side. Smartphone screens are too small to make a good evaluation so use your computer to look at your picture.
Points to measure:
- Head length
- Base of chin to mid bust (bust peak)
- Bust peak to natural waist (that bit that dips in between your rib cage and your hip bone, not necessarily where your belly button is)
- Natural waist to leg break (where the leg bends at the hip, normally around 1″ or 2.5cm above the crotch)
- Leg break to mid-knee (this is 2 head lengths)
- Mid knee to ground (2 head lengthsThen measure from:
- Top of head to leg break
- Leg break to the ground
Understanding your shoulders and hips
To understand the relationship between your shoulders and hips, draw a straight line downward from the end point of your shoulder. This will show you if your shoulders are wider, narrower or the same width as your hips. As an alternate method, you can hang a string from the end of the shoulder and see where it falls. If the string doesn’t touch your hips, it means that your shoulders are wider than your hips.
