How to: Basic Measurements
HOW TO TAKE YOUR BASIC MEASUREMENTS?
Learning how to take your basic body measurements is an essential skill for "Living your best life". Three measurements: Bust, waist, and hip can take a style-less person to stylish in a matter of minutes. In the video below, I show you how to take your measurements to get your body type and then use them in a google search to get the best tips to dress your body type. After the video, check out the image below it, I explain how to use your measurement to pick the most accurate sizing on sites like Fashion Nova, Swank Blue, and etc..
What you need: Measuring Tape
Steps:
1. Bust: Wrap the measuring tape around your chest, making sure it's as even and centered as possible around the fullest part of your bust and write down the measurement.
2. Waist: Wrap the measuring tape around your natural waist, this is the most narrow part of your torso(I said stomach in the video but the correct body term would be your torso)making sure it's as even and centered as possible and write that measurement down.
3. Hip: Wrap the measuring tape around your hip, making sure it's as even and centered as possible around the fullest part of your bottom and write down the measurement.
My measurements: B:34, W:29.5,H:40.5
When looking at the size chart from the Fashion Nova example below, I've highlighted the important measurements, all the metrics can look a little overwhelming as a whole but if you look at the specific measurements that apply to the U.S and to the measurements taken in the video(Bust, Waist, and Hip) it becomes easier to decipher.
Now based on my BUST(34) measurement, We'll use the chart(for this sample, we'll focus on the "Tops & Dresses" chart) to figure out which size in the Bust category my measurements fit in. The Small category ranges from 33-35 inches so because my bust is 34 inches we know that the small category works best. Now we'll do the same metric comparison with the waist and hip categories.
Conclusion:
B: Small
W: Medium**
H: Large**
** I always round down because I know that most of the trendy sites have spandex, nylon or lycra blended materials in their garments, making them stretchy.
After figuring out each category I then figure out which Size category could fit more of my measurements and in this case, I would go with the Medium. The Small size range is to small for my waist and hip measurements but fits my bust. The medium is only an inch bigger than my bust, fits my waist, but may be tight on my hips. The large is too big for my Bust and Waist but fits my hip, so the most comfortable size is looking like the medium(9) in the "tops and dresses" chart. I would also like to note that in this case, I would consider the material of the specific garment heavily. I would make sure there is some stretch in the material. If not, then go for the larger size because it's easier to make alterations on a larger garment than one that is too small.
I hope you enjoyed this lesson.
Peace and R8tings,
Bird