There are a lot of women’s body shapes or types infographics around, but they’re generally vague as to what body shape fits into what classifications. If you’re on the borderline, it’s hard to tell. This one below that I found has not only specific measurements for what qualifies as certain body types, but also a distribution of women in society that carry that body. The latter should be taken with caution as obesity is a lot worse now than it was back in 2003 when the sample of 6318 women were scanned. The lack of a “round” or “diamond” classification where the waist is the biggest of the bust, waist and hip measurements should drive that point home pretty clearly. Women in different cultures may also have different distributions of these shapes. However, you can still get an idea of what share of the American (or similar) female population has what body type shown, and which ones might be more or less common now than back in 2003.

Click to enlarge

I’ve updated this graphic by adding a lot of alternative names for the basic 4 names used (Hour glass, Spoon, Rectangle, and Triangle that should really be Inverted Triangle for today’s fashionista lingo).

If you weren’t sure what body type you were before because you were borderline or because your body type guides had been rather crude, hopefully this will help. If you want leads on how to dress well for it, check out my Fitting for Body Types Pinterest board.

More on body shapes and distributions, as well as designing apparel for them, can be found in this Google book scan of Designing Apparel for Consumers, edited by M-E Faust, S Carrier.