How to measure your body shape
Bust, waist, high hip and hips for women; shoulders, chest, waist and hips for men. Where the tape goes, how tight to pull it, and what usually goes wrong.
Your body shape comes from three or four numbers, so the result is only as good as the tape work. Measuring yourself properly takes about three minutes. Here is where to put the tape, how tight to pull it, and the mistakes that most often throw the result off.
What you need
- A soft tape measure, the fabric or fiberglass kind used for sewing. A rigid metal tape will not follow the body.
- A mirror, ideally one you can turn sideways to, so you can check the tape is level at the back.
- Thin clothing or underwear. Jeans, belts and thick knits add several centimeters.
- Optional: a helper, especially for shoulders.
The general rules
- Keep the tape level, parallel to the floor all the way around. A tape that dips at the back adds length, and hip measurements are the most likely to dip.
- Snug, not tight. The tape should lie flat against the skin without pressing in. If you can slide one finger under it with a little resistance, that is about right.
- Stand naturally, feet together, arms relaxed at your sides. Do not hold your breath or pull in your stomach; breathe out normally and read the tape.
- Measure twice. If the two readings differ, measure a third time and use the middle one.
- Use one unit throughout. The calculator works in centimeters or inches, and it will point out if your numbers look like the other unit.
Women’s measurements, step by step
- Bust. Wear the bra you usually wear (an unpadded one if you have it). Wrap the tape around the fullest part of your bust, usually across the nipples, and keep it level across your shoulder blades.
- Waist. Find your natural waist, the narrowest part of your torso, usually a little above the navel. If you do not have an obvious narrow point, bend to one side: the crease that forms is your natural waist. Measure there, relaxed.
- High hip. Optional. Measure around the top of your hip bones, which for most people is a few centimeters below the waist. It shows whether your hip width starts high or low.
- Hips. Stand with your feet together and measure around the fullest part of your seat. It is often somewhere around 18 to 23 cm (7 to 9 in) below the natural waist, but bodies vary, so slide the tape up and down a little and take the largest reading. Check sideways in the mirror that it is level.
Men’s measurements, step by step
- Shoulders. Optional, and easiest with a helper. With arms relaxed at your sides, measure all the way around the widest part of the shoulders and upper arms. The calculator shows a shoulder-to-waist ratio for reference but does not use it to pick your shape, because it is the hardest measurement to repeat accurately.
- Chest. Raise your arms slightly, wrap the tape under the armpits around the fullest part of the chest and across the shoulder blades, then lower your arms and read it.
- Waist. For body shape, measure around the navel, relaxed. This is usually larger than your trouser waist size, which many men wear lower on the hips; that is expected.
- Hips. Optional, but without it the calculator cannot recognize a triangle shape. Measure the fullest part of the seat, feet together.
Common mistakes
- The tape dips at the back. This is the most common error, and it makes hips and bust read larger. Use the mirror.
- Measuring over thick clothes. Jeans add a lot at the waist and hip, and a padded bra changes the bust.
- Pulling the tape tight or sucking in. The calculator compares your measurements with each other, so squeezing one throws off the result.
- Measuring the trouser waist instead of the natural waist. For body shape, the waist is the narrowest point of the torso (women) or the navel (men), not where your jeans sit.
- Mixing units. One measurement in inches among centimeters will produce a very strange shape. The calculator flags numbers outside its range and measurements that are very far apart, but check anyway.
No tape measure?
Use a piece of non-stretchy string or a phone charging cable: wrap it around, pinch the point where it meets, then lay it flat against a ruler or a rigid tape measure. It is slower, but accurate if you are careful. Phone apps that estimate measurements from a photo exist, but for body shape, where a couple of percent matter, a tape is more reliable.
Inches to centimeters
One inch is exactly 2.54 cm. The table covers the usual range; the calculator converts automatically when you switch units.
| Inches | Centimeters |
|---|---|
| 24 | 61.0 |
| 26 | 66.0 |
| 28 | 71.1 |
| 30 | 76.2 |
| 32 | 81.3 |
| 34 | 86.4 |
| 36 | 91.4 |
| 38 | 96.5 |
| 40 | 101.6 |
| 42 | 106.7 |
| 44 | 111.8 |
| 46 | 116.8 |
| 48 | 121.9 |
| 50 | 127.0 |
| 52 | 132.1 |
| 54 | 137.2 |
| 56 | 142.2 |
| 58 | 147.3 |
| 60 | 152.4 |
Next: put the numbers on the card
Enter your measurements in the body shape calculator. It will name a shape, show the percentages it used, and tell you if a 2% change in one measurement would put you in a neighboring shape. Then read the guide that fits: pear, apple, hourglass, rectangle or inverted triangle.
Then see clothes on your own body
Measurements tell you your proportions. A try-on shows you what a specific garment does with them. Upload a photo of yourself and a photo or shop link of a garment; FitInView shows you wearing it.