Nigeria is experiencing a shift in what constitutes the ideal body size and shape, along with the best means for attaining such a body. It's essential to understand and celebrate the variety of body types among Nigerian women.
Diverse Nigerian Women
Understanding Body Shapes
What is so great about how we are all designed and made is that we all do come in different shapes, sizes, colours and hair types. Identifying and knowing your shape can help you to become more confident when choosing what to purchase or what to wear. When you know what your body shape is, it empowers you to know what does or doesn't work for you. Fashion trends are forever changing in each season and sometimes not every trend will suit every body type as you see it in stores, so you do have to think about how to make it work for YOUR shape.
The female figure is the cumulative product of a woman’s skeletal structure and the quantity and distribution of muscle and fat on the body (Macdonald, 1995). The female body is typically narrower at the waist than at the bust and hips. The waist bust and hips are called inflection points, and the ratio of their circumferences is used to define basic body shapes. A woman’s dimensions are expressed by the circumference of the three inflection points, for exemple36-29-38 would mean 36 inches bust, 29 inches waist, 38 inches hip (Gordon, Castro, Sitnikov, iHolm-Denoma, 2010).
Figure. The following body shapes in Figure 1. has over time been identified as the major shapes of the human female figure: hourglass, rectangular, oval, circle/apple and triangular shapes. (Gill, 2015).
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Common Body Shapes Among Nigerian Women
African women have the same general types of body shape as other women globally. Although some certain body shapes are more distinct amongst different African tribes, for instance, in Kenya, the rectangular body shape is the most distinct body shape. In South Africa, the triangle or the pear shape is the most distinct body shape, followed by the hour-glass and the rectangle. The least common are the rectangle.
Pear Shape
The pear female body shape is also called the bottom-heavy triangular shape. The pear shape tends to be more bottom-heavy; a major characteristic of this shape includes a well-defined waist and shoulders are narrower. The body top half is smaller than the bottom half, full hip and thighs, legs are full and muscular, weight gain tends to be visible around hips, thighs, and lower midriff. The pear body shape is one of the most common body shapes for women in Africa, (Makhanya, 2015). The pear-shape has waist that is 9 inches smaller than the hips or has hips which is two or more inches larger than the bust. The pear-shape woman has hip that is 5% or more larger than bust or shoulder. Hips divided by shoulder or bust is equal to or greater than 1 (one).
Fashion Tips for Pear Shape
Each body shape has design that best compliment the woman. The pear shape woman is not an exception. The outfit of the pear-shaped woman should be used to balance the shoulder, bust, waist and hips-lines can be used to focus the eye where it should go. This can help create curves, increase or emphasize your favourite parts of the body. Colour and pattern and light attract the eye. Bright colours attract more than solid black or navy.
- Best tops: Accentuate the top half and defined waist. Light, bright colour or prints in peplum, square or V-neck to show off collar bone and chest, cowl neck, boat neck, goes well with puff sleeves and other eye-catching details.
- Jeans: Slightly roomier cuts and darker colours in straight, boot-cut, high-waist.
- Best pants: Curve skimming styles in stretch fabrics that will not suffocate your hips. In boot-cut, flat-front, high-waist, fitted or straight.
- Best dresses: A-line, flare, warp off-the-shoulder, fitted dress.
Rectangle/Pencil Shape
Being of a smaller frame, you really have to embrace what you have going for you. Find the looks that work with your shape and maximize on them through your style. I cannot sit here and beat myself up for the fact I do not have a figure like others. There are so many looks that suit the rectangle shape that a pear would not be able to pull off, and vice versa. So celebrate the fact you are this shape.
In this post I will give tips on how to dress for your body shape if you are like me, a rectangle/pencil shape. From the chart below, this is the closest to my shape.
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Rectangle Body Shape Fashion Tips
Fashion Tips for Rectangle Shape
- When wearing skinny jeans, be sure to have shapes going on else where in your outfit.
- Wearing a long top that covers your bottom is always a good idea, to keep the modesty levels up and to also create more shape over all.
- A line skirts are a FRIEND to you if you are of a pencil shape. They give you immediate shape without you even having to think much about the other elements to your outfit.
- Peplum styled items look so great on pencil type body shapes.
Other Body Shapes
There are many body types women might have, and all of them are beautiful in their unique way! Learn what body type you have and how you can rock African prints.
- Apple Body Shape: Some styles that look especially good on this body type include short dresses, high waisted shorts, flowy dresses and tops that fall lower than the hip bone.
- Hourglass Body Type: Flaunt your small waist by wearing the right clothing for your body type. Consider wearing belts over shirts or dresses and fitted jackets to accentuate your fitted waist.
- Oval Body Shape: Styles that look especially good on oval body types include belted dresses and tops, empire waisted dresses, and skirts that fall just above the knee to add a more proportioned look.
- Diamond Body Shape: Diamond body shapes are known for having great lower legs. Show them off by wearing A-line skirts that fall right above the knee.
Curvy Beauties of Nigeria: A Celebration of Curves #BodyPositivity #CurvyWomen #Nigeria #Beauty
The Importance of Self-Love and Confidence
We all have things that we may like to change about our appearance..some it's our nose, some it's our lips, some it's our skin complexion and other things... However we can become so focused on the outside that we neglect to work on our character. Not many people think 'oh I want to learn to be more patient' or 'I want to learn to LOVE MYSELF MORE!!!!' ...yet working on our character carries greater weight than merely just working to look good.
In order for others to believe that you do love yourself and the body you are in, YOU have to believe it first, because it shows through your body language and the way you present yourself if you actually care about yourself or not. Showing cleavage, legs, bums and all the rest does not in any way shape or form mean that you are confident in the body you are in. It just highlights the lack of self worth you have for yourself....again I have been there so I speak from experience.
Styling is fun and so enjoyable, once you learn to accept the differences you have and do not label them as ugly. LOVE YOU FOR YOU and others will LOVE YOU FOR YOU too. Set the bar.
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Historical and Cultural Influences
This research seeks to situate older and newer Nigerian body ideals and modifying practices within the constellation of aesthetics, health, technology, and cultural influences locally, regionally, continentally, diasporically, and more generally.
The 2001 crowning of Nigeria’s Agbani Darego, the first indigenous African Miss World, facilitated Nigerian imaginings of slimmer bodies as good, beautiful, and ideal.
Agbani Darego, the first indigenous African Miss World
In Africa, beauty is believed to be curvaceous, traditional African beauty celebrates a woman’s curvy yet voluptuous figure. A girl’s ability to bear and conceive a healthy baby is very much associated with the broadening of her hips and a woman’s lustrous round body implies her desirability, her value in being a suitable pick for a wife and also reflective of her family’s wealth, hence the “bigger and healthier the better”.
The Textile and Apparel Industry in Nigeria
Garment production and merchandising seasonally is major a money-spinning industry globally, particularly in the developed economies of the world. However, their major underpin is standardised anthropometric data base and sizing measurement system of the human anatomy which has given them the ability to mass produce trending garments seasonally. This study realising that Africa, most particularly Nigeria seems not to have any indigenous sizing system, but relies on western standard measurement which are largely diametrically at variance with our measures. This study has attempted to provide a standard fitting measurement chart, starting with the Nigerian pear-shaped women as case study.
The textile and apparel industry is a major industry in the global marketplace considering the numerous components of the supply chain involved in transforming raw materials into useable products and bringing products to the final consumer. As at 2004, the industry was ranked third in global commercial exchanges, behind automobiles and electronics (Hallnäs, 2007). This is despite the relatively small start-up capital and low-skilled labour requirements of the industry (Tian & Hu, 2016).
The standard measurements approved by standard bodies like International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) are mostly useful in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, but are not so applicable in Africa where the pear shape is prevalent (Zwane & Magagula, 2007). Sizing standard developers have overlooked the sizing and clothing needs of the African pear-shaped figure, with the impression that the group with the pear-shape fall within a small percentage of the population (Ola-Afolayan & Mason, 2013).
Furthermore, a pilot study by the researchers suggests that Africa, most particularly Nigeria does not seem to have any anthropometric data base and sizing system. The local designers and tailors rely on foreign measurement charts, which seems not to efficiently meet the need of the Nigerian woman.
Even though there are pear-shaped women all over the world, there is still the need to develop a sizing system unique to the Nigerian woman.
African Print Dress
