Cracking the Code: Figure Type

This weekend, when I was on a “mini-vacation” with my family, in the car on the way to visit some friends who live in the country, all the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place. I want to get it written and published before I forget.

The 6 figure types and how to ID yours:

  • Type A (formerly triangle) = shoulders narrower than hips, waist defined or not.
  • Type I (formerly rectangle or pencil) = shoulders and hips equally wide, waist slightly or not defined.
  • Type O (formerly oval) = shoulders sloped and equal to hips, waist filled in.
  • Type V (formerly wedge or inverted triangle) = shoulders wider than hips, waist defined or not.
  • Type X (formerly hour-glass) = shoulders straight and equal to hips, waist defined.
  • Type 8 (formerly figure-eight) = shoulders sloped and equal to, or slightly smaller than, hips; waist defined.

Does this clear up more questions than it raises? If not, leave your questions here.

9 thoughts on “Cracking the Code: Figure Type”

  1. I regularly vacillate between a type X and type 8… seeing as how I’ve been nursing or pregnant for X (or is that 8?) number of years now. I also regularly go into the type P (or would that be type b?), pregnant-mode! 🙂

    I’d love to see fashion ideas/dress ideas for pregnant people… it’s often very difficult to feel lovely while pregnant. Particularly in clothes. Skirts are hard and dresses are hard. Either your whole belly is defined and fabric clings to it, or it drapes down in front, which is even worse because it makes you look like a trash barrel from the empire waist down. So, any thoughts on that?
    Thanks

  2. Hi Jess! Welcome to the blog!

    Not everyone makes a distinction between X & 8, it’s not that important, but I think those figure types have a particularly hard time feeling lovely when pregnant. It makes sense, the defined waist is integral to those shapes.

    I have about come to the conclusion that the defined belly look, converting the usual figure 8 into an oval, is preferable to the other option.

    I’ll try to come up with a post, too, for maternity. Hmmmm …

  3. This is the first time I have heard of the figure type “8”. It describes my figure exactly – or it used to. Now that I’m approaching my 70th birthday, I don’t know what my figure type is -mainly because my tummy looks like I’ve swallowed a small watermelon. My waist is still 10 inches smaller than my hips. I cannot figure out what to wear with the tummy situation. Any advice? Pat

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