Body shape calculator
Measure your bust, waist and hips, and this works out which of the five shapes those numbers describe, and what it means for what you wear underneath.
Your shape
Hourglass
Bust and hips in line with each other, and a waist that dips well below both. Clothes tend to fit one measurement and hang loose at the waist.
Your proportions already do what shapewear is usually bought to do, so the job here is the surface: a smooth line under a fitted dress, without anything redrawing your waist. A bodysuit at medium compression sits under clothing rather than fighting it.
Fit tends to go wrong at the bust instead. A cup that runs out of room shows through a close-cut dress more than anything happening at your waist does.
Pieces that suit this shape
Pear
Hips wider than the bust, with the difference sitting at the seat and thigh. Skirts and trousers usually decide the size.
Shaping below the waist is what changes the line here. High-waisted shorts smooth the hip and the thigh together, which is the join that shows under a bodycon dress or a fitted skirt.
Above the waist you have room to add rather than compress. A lift or a stick-on bra with wider-set cups brings the shoulders into line with the hip without adding bulk under a top.
Pieces that suit this shape
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Velomora High-Waisted Thigh Shaper Shorts for Women – Seamless Tummy, Waist, Hip & Thigh Control
₹599.00
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Women’s Shapewear | Butt Lifting & Waist Compressor Bodysuit | Full Body Shapewear
₹899.00
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Rabbit Bunny Ups | Breathable Fabric Upift | Sweat Proof, Waterproof, Reusable
₹599.00
The thigh shaper shorts come in two size runs, XS to L and XL to 3XL, so they go by the size you usually buy rather than by measurement.
Inverted triangle
Bust and shoulders wider than the hips, so tops run out of room before anything below the waist does.
Most of the fit question sits above your waist. A bra that puts the bust where you want it does more for the line than anything shaping below it, and an adhesive cup gives you that with no straps to show under a wide neckline.
If you want the hip to read fuller, a bodysuit with a lifted seat adds shape at the bottom instead of taking it away at the top.
Pieces that suit this shape
Apple
Bust, waist and hips within a few inches of each other, with the weight carried around the middle. Waistbands are the thing that has to be right.
Waist compression does the most here, and how far the garment reaches matters more than how firm it is. A panel that stops at the natural waist creates the line it was meant to hide, while a bodysuit takes the whole torso in one piece and has nowhere to dig.
Whatever the compression, you still have to breathe, sit and eat in it. If it is tight enough to change a measurement, it will hurt by the third hour.
Pieces that suit this shape
Rectangle
Bust, waist and hips close in measurement, with a waist that is narrower but not sharply so. Clothes hang straight rather than following a curve.
Shaping that takes the waist in and lifts the seat gives the outline a curve the measurements do not. A bodysuit does both in one piece, which is why it works better here than anything that only cinches the waist.
Under a straight-cut dress the same bodysuit mostly disappears, so it is the piece worth owning first.
Pieces that suit this shape
How we worked this out
A shape is a description of three measurements. It says nothing about whether the body they belong to is a good one, and most people sit between two shapes anyway.
The five shapes, and how each one is worked out
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Hourglass
Bust and hips within 2 inches of each other, and a waist at least 9 inches under the bust or 10 inches under the hips.
Bust and hips in line with each other, and a waist that dips well below both. Clothes tend to fit one measurement and hang loose at the waist.
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Pear
Hips more than 2 inches wider than the bust. Also called a triangle.
Hips wider than the bust, with the difference sitting at the seat and thigh. Skirts and trousers usually decide the size.
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Inverted triangle
Bust more than 2 inches wider than the hips.
Bust and shoulders wider than the hips, so tops run out of room before anything below the waist does.
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Apple
Waist within 4 inches of both the bust and the hips, with no clearly narrower waist. Also called round.
Bust, waist and hips within a few inches of each other, with the weight carried around the middle. Waistbands are the thing that has to be right.
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Rectangle
Bust and hips within 2 inches of each other, and a waist narrower than both by more than 4 inches but short of the 9 or 10 an hourglass needs. Also called straight.
Bust, waist and hips close in measurement, with a waist that is narrower but not sharply so. Clothes hang straight rather than following a curve.
The rules are checked in the order above, and the first one that fits is the answer. Everything is compared in inches, so centimetre entries are converted first. Other calculators draw these lines in slightly different places, which is why a set of measurements sitting near a boundary can come back with a different word elsewhere.
How to measure for this
Body shape questions
How do I check my body shape type?
Measure your bust at the fullest part, your waist at the narrowest and your hips at the widest, then compare the three. Bust and hips within two inches of each other with a waist nine or ten inches smaller is an hourglass. Hips wider than the bust is a pear, a bust wider than the hips is an inverted triangle, and a waist within four inches of both is an apple. What is left over is a rectangle.
What is a 34-28-36 body shape?
A rectangle by the rules on this page. The hips are two inches wider than the bust, which still counts as balanced, and the waist is six inches under the bust and eight under the hips, short of the nine and ten that mark a defined waist. It sits close to both the hourglass line and the pear line, which is a fair illustration of how little separates one shape from the next.
What body shape is 33 26 36?
A pear. The hips are three inches wider than the bust, past the two inch line, and the waist is ten inches under the hips. Some calculators call this a bottom hourglass because of that waist, but the shaping advice is the same either way: the work is at the hip and thigh.
Is the 36 24 36 body shape real?
As a set of measurements, yes, and every calculator including this one reads it as an hourglass. It is also uncommon, and it has been repeated as an ideal for so long that it stopped describing anybody in particular. Three numbers say nothing about health or height. Measure your own and use them to buy clothes that fit.
Can my body shape change?
Yes. Weight, pregnancy, muscle and age all move the three measurements, and the shape moves with them. Measure again when clothes start fitting differently rather than working from numbers you wrote down years ago.
Which size shapewear goes with my shape?
Your shape decides which garment, and your measurements decide which size of it. The shapewear size finder takes your waist and hip and gives you a size in each shaper we stock, including the case where your measurements sit outside the sizes we carry.