R U an X Hourglass or an 8 Hourglass?

All hourglasses are not the same? All hourglasses are not the same, apparently. And this explains a lot. For one thing, it explains why despite recommendations that I, as the owner of an hourglass shape, should wear A-line skirts, I hate how they look on me. I feel like A-line shapes make my hips and thighs look bigger than my house. I've always preferred pencil skirts and straight skirts, but thought I wasn't "supposed" to wear them.

This explains why -- if you are an hourglass shape, you can be an 8 or an X shape. The difference is, the upper hip curve of an 8 shape flares out from the waist while the hips of an X shape have a straighter slope out to the hips.

How to make an 8 shape look its best.

How to make an X shape look its best.

More explanation of an 8 shape -- I'm off to study this!

Hourglass Hip Alteration

Tripped on this tip today ... a shirt/top alteration for full hips. An alteration useful for hourglass or figure-8 shapes when you want to keep the waist smaller, but allow room for the hips. I usually buy the right pattern size for upper chest measurement, and add more room to the side seams. This alteration from Off The Cuff blog is an elegant solution that maintains the pattern lines better. You may need to scroll down to the 3/29/2009 post.

Huh! Duh ...

Out of town on business. Reading blogs with one eye, watching Batman Begins with the other. Bored. But this blog post woke me up ... a skirt/dress hem a little longer in the back than the front is not necessarily a mistake. This made perfect, immediate, intuitive sense. A figure-8 all around, I got some booty. I understand.

Notes by the Hourglass

To follow-up on my X posts ... here are tips from real life, real women, real sewing for the hourglass figure at PatternReview.

Wish I'd consulted this discussion before sewing the current trend below. The dress wound up darted in the front and back so I don't look enormous and shapeless. Cut wide enough to clear the hips and falling over the chest of an hourglass shape, it stands too far from the body. But just skimming over an "I" shape, it could look fabulous.

So, study the words of these wise women.

Looking at X-Rated

So, if you want to get an objective view of your body's proportions (per post below, mine is apparently "X"), check out these directions involving a camera, printer, pen, tracing paper ...

Then learn what this has to do with Perfection, the Golden Section, Bottecelli's Birth of Venus ...

If you weren't tempted to click, you should be now.

X-Rated

Inside Out Style is the best link I've tripped on during blog surfing in all of 2009! Maybe in all the past decade if blogs were around that long. It blasts Susannah and Trinny, and who-are-those-two-people-on-Lifetime-I-forget, out of the water. Out of all the fashion and appearance self-help readings out there, few may really truly change you. This website will change my choices.

I am an X Hourglass shape, which I've always known. But Imogen describes another similar body type, the 8 shape, which comes verrrrry very close. Think Catherine Zeta-Jones. Yeah, I wish I had anything in common with her, other than eyebrow color.

Anyway, an 8 carries the hip width just under the waist while an X carries hip width further down the butt and thighs.

I am loving this website because it gives great detail (it advises on not just straight or bootleg pant legs, but also flared which is not the same thing) and it uses updated, current photos to illustrate the shapes that complement your body shape. She also combines body shape advice with petite, tall and long leg advice.

This is being added to my blog reading list PRONTO ...