Because you can't have depths without surfaces.
Linda Grant, thinking about clothes, books and other matters.
Pure Collection Ltd.
Net-a-porter UK

Tuesday 29 January 2008

The Thoughtful Dresser poll: which shape?

pear-shaped woman

The difficulties of finding my dress are based on my being pear-shaped - narrow shoulders, big hips, bad legs. One only has to go to the changing room or a gym, pool or spa to see how few women have the basis of a perfect figure. So if you could choose, which would you be? Vote as ever on the right.

Advantages and disadvantages of each type:

Boyish - easy to dress but no curves
Hourglass - hard to wear high fashion but in proportion
Pear - Small waist but bad legs
Apple -No waist but good legs

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hourglass, hands down (although Trinny and Susannah tell me I'm a "Vase" here):

http://www.littlewoodsdirect.com/rf/lxd/static.do?page=landinghtml97

Jopie Schekkerman said...

I'd choose boyish. Curves, you can buy. No surgery of course but a padded bra can go a long way.

NancyDaQ said...

Hourglass. It's my basic shape and what I know, although sometimes I think boyish would be simpler.

Cal said...

Hourglass. Which is what I am - I would prefer to be a slightly smaller hourglass though! (Well actually just an hourglass with a less wobbly tummy and arms would do)

Sometimes I yearn to be boyish though. But only if tall and slim (but not skinny).

indigo16 said...

My sisiter is a pear and looks lovely in skimpy tops and skirts, but jeans are a no no.
My eldest daughter is hour glass and looks lovely in everything, but her cleavage is always trying to escape.
Daughter No2 is boyish and as a child once wore 15 pairs of pants in an effort to get a pair of hips! nothing fits her, tops gape open and bottoms fall off. At the age of 12 she wear skirts age 8-9 and only has 2 pairs of trousers.
I am an apple and EVERYTHING is too tight.
I guess the hour glass wins.

Anonymous said...

I'm an hourglass too; I'm happy with that and I wouldn't change to any of the others.

Anonymous said...

I am a pear and I like it. I am not extreme, I still have a bust and in the right clothes look like an hourglass. My tights have problems I agree, but from above the knee down my legs are great. Trousers work too but not all shapes. The problem is that often the leg is to narrow and the waist is to big. My tights aren't huge, but often the waist size grows larger than my hips (remember I am a pear, this is my broadest part) faster than the leg. But there are trousers I can wear, often the classic ones.
Oh and the real plus. If I dress right (not too tight clothing, no emphasis at the hips), nobody believes my weight, because they look mostly at my upper body, which is nowadays around 4 sizes smaller than my lower body ;-).

Anonymous said...

I'd rather be an hourglass, which I am. But within hourglass proportions, no one is exactly right. There are slightly bottom-heavy hourglasses (different from pears because our upper bodies are not small) and slightly top-heavy hourglasses (usually through implants.) I'm the former and wish I were the latter, except naturally.

I always thought I'd like a boyish figure but I now have a friend with one, and it can be very difficult to dress.

Meg said...

I'm a proud hourglass and wouldn't want to change that, but I would like to loose some weight, especially from my thighs. Fortunately, skirts and dresses hide most of that.

I could care less about high fashion trends when it comes to clothing silhouettes. I look to the classics for inspiration. I love the look of the 1940s despite the fact that they had so much less to work with (or maybe because of that).

Anonymous said...

i am a pear figure through and through; i quite like having a slim upper half; i can fit into almost any top i want. but my bottom half is what i'm not as confident about. I feel like as if i'm out of proportion most of the time. if i do some hardcore exercise will i be able to change my body shape slightly??

GuinGuin said...

I'm pear and happy to be so. I don't have bad legs either. In fact pears have a really good capacity for building muscle in the thighs which looks awesome.

Every body type is capable of looking great if you eat right and work out.

GuinGuin said...

I also love my jeans, pears look best in bootcut styles whilst boyish figures look great in skinnies. Hourglasses can probably do either.

I wouldn't mind being an hourglass but like someone above said the variation where the bottom is bigger than the top. I just think women look more feminine when the bottom half is slightly bigger than the top.