Ignite the spotlight for middle figures. If your waist/hip and waist/bust ratio is greater than .75, absorb the glow of your moment. You’ve been hiding in the shadows ever since crop tops, belly piercings, and super low waisted jeans began colluding in 1992. You ignore your delicate wrists, shapely ankles, beautiful skin and it’s time you paraded them. There are no bad or better body types. Swallow before the words “I’m exercising my way to an hourglass” spill out your mouth. They have their own jar of pickles.
Now back to you, you and your soft delicious center. Your figure implies comfort with volume lying around your navel. You have the body type people want to cuddle. Especially tiny people, who most people call babies. Babies may have shaped your body into womanhood, and you should bear your wounds of motherhood with honor, not shame. Your waist is not a body flaw it is a body attribute, and below is a vision of your future, brimming with sauntering and pageant worthy hand gestures.
First remember, to never accessorize your fullest assets. This means avoiding drawing a line around your middle portion with belts and tucked in waistbands. Second, direct attention to your face. Employ the powers of an open or embellished neckline, jewelry, and exposed skin. Third, opt for monochromatic pieces or selections in similar color families, rather than creating a bold contrast between top and bottom. You want to create a seamless line all the way down your figure. Your master goal is to use well tailored clothes to provide structure for your soft figure. Below is an ensemble example.
The lighter color of the Can Can Pencil Skirt attracts focus to the lower half of the body. The ruffle creates volume and balances out the core. The shape of the skirt hugs and rounds the bottom and the straight line creates a long, lean profile down to your killer gams.
Come back tomorrow for Lower Figured apparel.
I LOVE the idea of a virtual personal shopper and one that is sensitive to the not so model perfect figure! I will certainly be back to see more of your fabulous fashion sense and desperately needed advice!
Oh Reachel. Your post made me tear up a little. I clicked through from c jane, and wasn’t sure what I expected to see, but it wasn’t this. I AM Middle Figured, and have spent my life since age 6 battling against this so-called fashion death sentence. A gently rounded belly has been expanded by 2 children, a stressful job, and not enough Pilates. Compounded by shortness of stature (5’2″) and a little top-heaviness, and I feel as though I spend my days looking frumpy at best and pregnant at worst.
Never have I seen anyone celebrate the rounded figure in this way. THANK YOU. You can bet I am going to proclaim – and lay claim to- my Soft, Delicious Center from now on.
I have already emailed my hubby and put you on my christmas list! Will you be profiling the hippy body with tree trunk legs???? I need help!!!
You are awesome, Raechel. I am loving your site!
I am not getting the ratio right – waist is 30, hips 38, which puts my ratio at .78 – but I am clearly MUCH bigger in the hips making me a pear?
I LOVE this site!! Thank you so much for doing this.
I came across your blog just two days after complaining to my husband that I had no idea how to dress for my body type. I am clearly an apple and have never knows how to work with it. Like jeans, how does one find cute jeans? If they’re big enough to button around my middle than they are too big in the hips. They always pinch my tummy and creat a muffin-top. Anyway, thanks for the tips thus far, and I will for sure be checking back for more.
(to The Woman Behind the Words) If your waist/bust ratio is less than .75 and your waist/hip ratio is just slightly over .75, I would classify you as lower figured.
love it!
so excited to see more reachel:)
Thank you for celebrating soft, delicious centers! I feel like my body type is oft-neglected in fashion mags, which has left me feeling underserved and undesirable through the years. Now I will go shopping. J. Crew is having a fantastic Christmas sale!
Reachel, I had no idea you had a blog!! It’s wonderful!! You’re amazing! You’re doing such wonderful things for all women! Women’s bodies are all so different and I love how you celebrate all of them. You are making the world a better place! And I am not surprised in the least! So glad I found this:) You’re so great!
I love your blog. It lets me know there is hope. I have lost quite a bit of weight in the last year. All the clothes don’t work for me because I am older 50+ I don’t like dressing like the teens. I like that you have ideas (pictures) to help me know what to look for. Thanks. Do you only work in Arizona?
I’ve just recently become “middle figured” thanks to two kids! And I appreciate this post. Until I can get in better shape I’ve often wondered how to dress to accentuate the positives until I reach my goal
Great post!
What a great idea! I will definitely be trying this out. I just discovered your blog through a friends link. It is lovely!!!
Reachel, your amazing style and tremendous grace make this a new favorite spot to check daily.
Your choices are gorgeous.
You are truly lovely.
Does being completely devoid of curves make me middle figured? I am 5’10”, 120 pounds, a size 2, and apparently also middle figured. But unfortunately there is nothing soft about me. There’s got to be another classification for my body type.
This is a wonderful service you’re rendering to your readers (I’m another cJaner). Not to be obnoxious, but are you planning to profile the figure that’s sort of the opposite of this one? Think tallish, skinny, flat-chested, not so much by way of hips. Like an overgrown 12-year-old. I think Shabby Apple calls it the Pencil.:-) Believe or no, it’s not easy to find clothes that fit well!
Angie and Hannah. Make sure you check the post on Fitting Room Friday, for the Linear Figure. You should get some helpful outfitting tips there.
Great–thanks! Your blog is really fun!
Hey Reachel-
I’m so glad that you have time to do all this (or do you?) I am impressed 🙂
So tell me, if i am a middle shape but slender, does the not creating a line with belts and such still apply??
Carolyn-
The more extreme your body type, the more rules you need to abide by. If you are a middle figure (which I’m not sure of without looking at your numbers), you’re a borderline middle figure. Which means, you can try things on (belts etc) and use your discretion to determine which rules you need to follow with exactness.
thanks for making me feel happy about my “apple shape”, which i have always described as “a barrel with arms and legs”; i like your way better 🙂 proudly put the button on my blog!
My apply center has come from weight gain and mastectomy. Before mastectomies I was pretty ripe strawberry and now I don’t know what I should be focusing on. Any suggestions for the surgically altered?
I just found your blog, and am really excited about it. I have read, measured and calculated each of the body types, and am in need of some help. I qualify as a “middle”, “lower”, & “linear” gal, but am really wishing to have back my “hour glass” figure. My shoulder & hip are each approximatly 16″ across the front, waist – 30.5″ measured at the narrowest point, or 35″ at my belly button (both relaxed measurements ie. worst cast scenario), bust – 35.25″ (nursing, but probably not that affected, except for down a couple of inches, from where I used to be, from nursing 2 babies), hip – 37″, and then I’m trying to figure in 4′ 11 & 3/4″ and around 115 lbs (btw, that is genetically really heavy for me). I really miss my previous hour glass figure (waist approx 26″, bust and hip at approx 35″), and am really struggeling to figure out how to dress my new figure in something other than baggy shirts, to hide myself. Maybe then I can accept this new me. Please HELP me.
Just found your blog; so this question may be late and go unanswered. But what if I qualify for both Middle and Lower Figured body types?
Hip/waist 1.148
Bust/waist 1.02
Waist/hip 0.87
Waist/bust 0.97
I had a baby 6 months ago, and I don’t lose much weight at all until after I stop nursing. But then, the weight typically goes away in the waist and the chest. Could I be a pear and an apple post partum?
Thanks!!
Same here. My measurements indicate I am both middle and lower figured:
hip/waist = 1.266
bust/waist = 1.172
waist/hip = .790
waist/bust = .853
I’m a pear & an apple, too. How is that possible?
38″
32″
40″ ..nursing mom. Normally, subtract 2″ from each.
Someone asked about Jeans for the apple figure. I second that! When I find jeans that fit my middle, they are baggy in the butt. I’ve found that stretch jeans work best for some give, but once you wear them for a day they look about 3 sizes too big on me. If I get jeans with no stretch, they pinch when I sit down. Any suggestions. Maybe the solution is buying jeans with a little stretch and just wearing them only once before washing?
This is long overdue. I did my measurements back in december, but thought I would do it again. Hopefully you get this. So I have my measurements figured out, but I think I need help figuring out the match. I know dumb. It looks like I fit somewhere in the middle of them all. My measurements are Bust 33, Waist 26 1/2 and Hips 35. Could you help me out on figuring out what fruit I am.
Oh if it helps my email address is [email protected]
Reachel you are tooooo amazing!!!! I love this blog!!! I love the pictures of Coco too. She is getting more and more beautiful every day!
So I did my measurements and I could be an apple, pear, and off by a smidgen of being an hour glass. How is this possible? Which body type should I dress for? My measurements are bust 37, waist 30, hip 39.
Thanks!
@Lady Tabitha,
Numbers can be a helpful starting point for our fashion adventures, but they don’t tell the full story. Based strictly on ratios, I would categorize you as a lower figure. However, you may feel particularly sensitive with your middle post-partum, which would lead you to favor some tips for the center. Bodies are unique and hybrids do exist. The trick is figuring out what you want to streamline and what you want to shine.
Good luck dear!