It feels like I have never had to strain my brain as hard in my entire life… And this is coming from a person, who is known for over analysing things and thinking too much 😂.
For the last few weeks I’ve been coming up with the perfect, digestible way of explaining to women how they can work out their body shape and what suits them by themselves. I literally have dreams about different body shapes! The reason for this being so hard partly lies in my tendency towards perfection and wanting for this to be a finished product from the get-go. Well, perhaps I need to let go a bit and decide that this will be an ongoing project, and it will keep changing shape for a while, until I’m happy with it.
Anyway, even though it is a much slower process than I've anticipated, I can see progress 🥳🥳.
To catch up on the first stage of how to work out your body shape, go to my latest blog post:
https://www.mindoverfashion.co…
And now we are on to stage 2 of working out your body shape:
To recap, we all have a mixture of Yang and Yin within us.
Yang shows up as sharp shapes, like rectangles, triangles, edges, musculature.
Yin shows up as soft shapes, like circles, swirles, soft, rounded lines.
Now, let’s see what is in between those 2 extremes.
Even though Kibbe categorises 13 types all together, today I will only talk about the 5 pure type families:
Dramatic - far left, pure Yang.
Romantic - far right, pure Yin
Classic - all the features are the blend of Yin and Yang
Gamine - the contrast - some features are Yin and some are Yang
Natural - strong Yang influence, with a small mix of Yin, which makes the edges blunt rather than sharp, with widener horizontal lines.
Here is the diagram:
See the detailed description below:
DRAMATIC - Pure Sharp Yang
The Dramatic family sits on the very left of the yin/yang spectrum and is defined by sharp yang. This type family has no yin influence. That means a Dramatic will appear very elongated with sharp edges. A Dramatic body type has the following physical characteristics:
Bone Structure:
They appear very tall, narrow, and elongated
Their shoulders are narrow with sharp edges
They have long arms and legs
Their hands and feet are large and narrow
Body Flesh:
They have a flat bust line, straight waistline, and straight hips
The flesh on their bodies is very taut
NATURAL - Soft Yang.
also yang dominant but to a slightly lesser degree (soft yang). There is a small amount of yin in the blended mix. That means that while they are still angular, their edges are less sharp and blunter. A Natural body type has the following physical characteristics:
Bone Structure:
They appear tall but broad
Their shoulders are wide with blunt edges
They have long arms and legs
Their hands and feet are large and wide
Body Flesh:
They have a wide, flat-ish bust line, straight and wide waistline, and straight hips
The flesh on their bodies is taut but muscular
CLASSIC - blend of Yang and Yin
The Classic family is characterised by a balanced blend of yin and yang. They will appear very symmetrical with moderate features. A Classic body type has the following physical characteristics:
Bone Structure:
They look their actual, moderate height
Their shoulders are neither fully straight nor sloped
They have moderate arms and legs
Their hands and feet are moderately proportioned
Body Flesh:
They have an evenly proportioned bust line, waistline, and hips with a slightly smaller waist
The flesh on their bodies is neither very taut nor very curvy but evenly proportioned
GAMINE - Contrast of Yin and Yang
Gamine in French means kid.
The Gamine family is characterised by a combination of yin and yang. This is different from Classics as a Gamine's features will not be blended but will be either yin or yang. Gamine is built on contrast. Gamines often have childlike, youthful faces. The Yin side of Gamine can also be described as Petite. Gamine body type has the following physical characteristics:
Bone Structure:
They look petite, but their bones are angular and straight
They have long arms and legs
Their hands and feet are small and delicate
Body Flesh:
They have a straight bust line, waistline, and hips
The flesh on their bodies is quite lean
ROMANTIC - Pure Lush Yin
The Romantic family sits on the far right end of the Yin/Yang spectrum and is characterised by lush yin, with no yang influence. They will appear very soft with round edges. A Romantic body type has the following physical characteristics:
Bone Structure:
They appear delicate and shorter than they are
Their shoulders are sloped with round edges
They have short arms and legs
Their hands and feet are small
Body Flesh:
They have a full bust line, a full hourglass figure, and curvy, rounded hips
The flesh on their bodies is very soft, voluptuous, and fleshy (even when at ideal weight)
I hope you found this interesting/helpful! Which of these types describes you best? Can’t work it out? This is not all, look out for part 3 on the body shapes where I will walk you through the subtypes!
The image at the top @thebirdspapaya