Hourglass vs pear

One number decides it

Hips minus bust, mostly. With the waist defined (9 under the bust or 10 under the hips) and hips less than 3.6 inches over the bust, the result is Hourglass. At 3.6 or more with a 9-inch drop under the hips, Bottom hourglass — filed under hourglass by FFIT — or Spoon if high hip ÷ waist is 1.193 or more. Spoon can also match with the hips only more than 2 inches over the bust, because it is checked before Triangle and Rectangle. So the distinction is the bust-to-hip difference plus, in part of the range, the high hip.

The boundary, in numbers

Why the bust is the measurement to re-check

Because it is one side of the difference, and because in our ANSUR II stability analysis it was the measurement that most often decided the result (769 of 1,297 cases). A padded bra, the tape dropping at the back, or measuring over a sweater can each change it. If your stability note names the bust, measure it again over a thin bra with the tape level.

Bottom hourglass and spoon sit on the line

Both require the hips to lead the bust with a defined waist drop (9 inches for Bottom hourglass, 7 for Spoon) and are separated by high hip ÷ waist at 1.193. If your first three numbers land here, the calculator asks for the high hip. In terms of the outfit pages, both have a measured waist drop and hips larger than the bust, so the options on both the hourglass and pear pages apply.

Does the label change what suits you?

Less than the two names suggest. Both results have a defined waist, so the waist options on the hourglass outfits page apply to both. The pear page adds options for hips that measure larger than the bust — attention upward, room through the hips — if you want them. Near the threshold, read both and take what you like.

• Hourglass body shape · Pear body shape
• Measuring the bust so the difference is right: how to measure

References

The rules and figures on this page come from the sources below. Reference values are conventions from the literature, not targets.

1. Simmons, Istook & Devarajan (2004). Female Figure Identification Technique (FFIT) for Apparel, Part I: Describing Female ShapesJournal of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management 4(1):1–16 · JTATM 4(1)Defines the nine FFIT shapes (hourglass, top and bottom hourglass, spoon, triangle, inverted triangle, rectangle, diamond, oval) from bust, waist, high-hip and hip circumferences on 3D body scans of North American women. The rules on this site are this set, as later revised.
2. Sokolowski (2020). Modification of the Female Figure Identification Technique (FFIT) Formulas to Include Plus Size Bodies3DBODY.TECH 2020 Conference Proceedings · proc.3dbody.tech/2020Shows the 2007 FFIT formulas assumed the waist is smaller than the bust and so failed on many larger bodies; adds the Diamond and Oval rules and a ≥ 0 lower bound to Triangle, Inverted Triangle and Rectangle. This site uses the revised formulas.
3. Gordon et al. (2014). ANSUR II: 2012 Anthropometric Survey of U.S. Army Personnel — public working databasesU.S. Army Natick Soldier RDEC / Penn State OPEN Design Lab · ANSUR II Female PublicUsed only to test how sensitive the FFIT labels are to small measurement changes (median 2.4 cm to flip; 43.6% of women within 2 cm). Army personnel are not a general-population sample, so it is not used for percentiles.