Know Your Shape: And Why All This Is Important

Guest Blogger Maggie O is back! Margaret is a homeschool Junior, the fifth of seven children, growing up in the wilds of the Texas Panhandle. Her interests, other than style and fashion, include God, Mexican dancing, cooking, sewing, horses, and all arts feminine!

The Wardrobe Project: Know Your Shape

The first step to dressing well is to assess what you are trying to dress. That means measuring! For most women, taking measurements is going to create anxiety. You may have a hard time measuring for fear of what you might see. Remember always to see yourself as God sees and not as the world sees. A lot of times what the world is pushing as "fashionable" won't work for a lot of women. This is not your fault, this is merely a fault in the choice of clothes. You are beautiful in whatever shape you are. Your job as a woman is to bring out the natural beauty you have been God-given. One way to do it is through your choice of clothes. To start on making you look fabulous, we have to take measurements and find out what shape you are. 

You will need a tapemeasure, a pencil and paper. The measurements you need are your bust, your waist, and your hips. Here's the how-to:

Bust When you are measuring your bust, try to put the tape around the fullest part of your chest. Take the measurement with and without your bra--use the larger measurement of the two.

Waist When measuring your waist, put it at the smallest part of your waist. This will probably be about half an inch below where your ribs end. Do not measure at your belly button!!

Hips When measuring your hips, put the tape right at the fullest part of your bum.

Write each measurement down like this: 36 bust, 27 waist, 42 hip (these are the measurements of a pear). Now, figure out your shape below. Most women are obviously one or the other, but there are variations. These instructions will work for most women, but if they don't send us your numbers and we'll figure out your figure for you. (andychrism@yahoo.com)

Hey, Lady! Are You Some Kind of a Fruit?

Hour-glass   Your waist is less than 75% of your chest and hips, which are virtually the same.  If that doesn't make much sense, try this rule of thumb: your bust and hips are within 3 inches of each other and your waist is smaller than either your bust or hips.

Pear   Your waist is at least 75% of your chest, and your hips are at least 110% of your chest. If you don't want to do the math, you can look at your numbers and see that your hips are the largest part of your measurements and your waist is the smallest measurement. The bust is not large on a pear, so double check to be sure you are not an apple or banana before you make your final assessment.

Apple Your waist is at most 75% of your chest, and your chest is at least 110% of your hips. In nonmath English, that means your bust measurement is bigger than your hips and your waist measurement is bigger than your hips.

Banana Your waist is at least 75% of your chest and hips, which are virtually the same. In other words, your waist is within 3 inches of your hips and it is also within 3 inches of your bust. 

So Now You Know 

In all probability, when you found your size and shape you had a bad reaction. You might not be the shape or the size you think you should be. Let me quickly tell you why we are doing the project. When we started getting into the fashion culture, we noticed that the main message was that women have to be a certain weight and shape to be beautiful. When God put the first woman on earth He made her beautiful. Every woman is beautiful in God's eyes and that beauty has a purpose. As philosophers have pointed out, all Beauty points to God. A beautiful woman, if she is Godly, brings man closer to God. She does it by reflecting His Ultimate Beauty. If you feel you are not as beautiful as another woman, it merely means that you are going to be called to do something different than she. Your beauty, in whatever way it was made, has a purpose. Since Beauty reflects God, your beauty in whatever way you are beautiful has the ultimate purpose of drawing attention to God, not to itself.

So, if you are a mother, your beauty will draw attention to the ways that motherhood is good. You never know who is watching and getting the messages you are broadcasting. If  people see you, a mother, dressing beautifully and carrying yourself like a queen, you are showing the world that motherhood really is good. If people see you walking around looking shabby, they are very likely to blame the fact that you are a mother on the fact that you don't look good. You don't have to look glamorous, but if you make sure your clothes fit and your hair is brushed and you have a little makeup, people are going to look at you and see what God has ordained as a blessing for human kind through your beauty as a mother.

 If you are single, your beauty will make an impact on the world. Whether you are in a college class or if you are in the grocery store, you should wear your beauty openly and keep it sweet. Which brings me to my next point from Monica Ashour, Executive Director of the Theology of the Body Evangelization Team. In her talks, Monica shows us how we women, as women, are hiding, inviting, and exciting.

What Does She Mean by THAT?

So glad you asked... 
 
Hiding We can't be flaunting all our endowments in the front window. In other words. We can still be attractive without showing the world everything we own.

Inviting We shouldn't wear sacks out of a fear of looking good. I know that almost sounds like a contradiction, but we have to find a balance. We have to make being a Christian look good because it is so good, but we have to make sure we are hiding enough to be exciting and make us a mystery, so that others will want to find out why we are like that.   

Exciting The mere fact that we are women, beautiful in our receptivity, makes us exciting.

So, whatever shape you are, whatever weight you are, you are beautiful and you have to use that blessing and gift that God has given you. We are working on making the world see women as God sees women. Remember ladies, you are to be a gift to the world. Let your light shine and don't let anyone blow it out.

 A Woman Is...Hiding, Inviting, and Exciting!

Tune in next Wednesday for the next installment of The Wardrobe Project: Shopping for Your Pear Shape!