So, the hourglass figure – full bust and generous hips divided by a tiny waist; the favoured shape of the 1940s Hollywood siren, is back in fashion, big-time thanks at least in part to Kim Kardashian.
This is a seismic shift because all you Boomers (women like Jan and Cyndy, born between 1945 and 1952) and all of you born in the late 50s and 1960s have spent your formative years, indeed most of your lives, being urged to be as thin and androgynous as possible (basically to “lose” your curves and not have hourglass shape measurements) in order to look as much as possible like 1960s models Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton, and their more recent counterparts Kate Moss and Poppy Delevingne.
And now here we are in the second decade of the 21st century finding that the hourglass body shape, the shape of 1940s Hollywood stars, is the silhouette du jour. It’s enough to make you want to sit down and eat a whole box of chocolates.
Ladies of a certain age, we are not, repeat not, urging you to go the Full Kim Kardashian (that’s an extreme 34-26-40 torso, we have even seen claims that she measures 40-26-44). But we are offering advice (and suggesting beautiful clothes) for those of you who are naturally an hourglass shape, as well as showing some beautiful clothes to help you achieve more of an hourglass shape if nature made you a bean-pole.
Beautiful clothes for women with hourglass shape are not easy to find because much current clothing (both designer and mass market) is targeted at those with (or aspiring to) a straight shape. This is primarily because models, who tend to be very tall and very thin, generally look amazing in straight and androgynous clothing. Thus variations on “straight and androgynous” have been the overwhelmingly popular silhouette of the past 50 years, irrespective of how much women with natural curves have had to suffer to fit this template. So thank you, Kim Kardashian for freeing curvy women from the tyranny of having to look like adolescent boys.
You will find Style Tips for hourglass shapes here but in the meantime, these are our suggestions for rocking that hourglass shape and showing off that waist.
Have you got an hourglass figure? Tell us your favourite item to wear to show off your assets below!
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6 Comments
No, wish I had – I have always been told I had a good body – would rather I had a good figure!
How about thinking it’s one and the same Hazel? ‘Cause you can always use one of the styling tricks to ‘create’ a waist! Thanks for making us smile…
A lovely selection of ‘get waisted’ here. I’m tall and love long skirts and dresses accentuating my waist always helps. Thank you for a fab article. xx
We’re so pleased you enjoyed it Louise – and thank you for taking the trouble to let us know!
These are fabulous fashions for women under 50! I’m 42 an I must say these clothes have great “CURVE APPEAL”. I’m so glad that curves are back in style. I’ve always had this coke bottle shape, as young girl 17 18 with aspirations to model I was told to slim down to a size 3 or 4 and that I had a cute face but probably wouldn’t be able to do runway at 5’4 and would be better for print. I believe people should embrace the body they are in. These items Accentuate the waistline and are SoSentaional. Thanks
Thank you so much Adrian. It seems as if you were (and are) gorgeous… good for you not to try to lose weight unnecessarily to fit some paradigm of ‘thin’ that is so dangerous to our physical and emotional health. We love that you like the clothes – a lot of what’s on SoSensational works for under-50s as well as for over-50s, but maybe with a few styling differences.