Heres How Any Woman Can Tell Whether She Has a Perfect Figure

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13241, 17 January 1941, Page 7

Heres How Any Woman Can Tell Whether She Has a Perfect Figure

You may be sft. 3 or sft. S; you may weigh eight stone or tip the scales at the 10 stone mark —and still possess the perfect figure. By 194 0 standards, it’s neither the tail girl nor her shorter sister who has a monopoly of beauty awards — it's the girl whose body is most correctly proportioned in relation to her

height

Cleverly cut clothes worn with sufficient chic will cover a multitude of figure faults, but with beach days, there’s no concealing the line with which nature has endowed you. If you want to know whether you are well bestowed or not, don your swim suit, yourself over with a critical eye, and get out the tape measure.

Meagre consolation, perhaps, but if the worst totals up to the worst, you can always wear a beachrobe instead of shorts and avoid the too-re-vealing, skirtless type of swim-suit.

There are several methods of calculating whether the height is in correct proportion. One American authority suggests multiplying the [ length of the middle, finger by 19, another advocates multiplying the distance from the base of the chin to the top of the head by eight for a tail woman, or seven and a half for a medium figure. The two bones at the base of the abdomen should divide a woman transversely into two halves exactly —the legs being the same length as the trunk. The shoulders should be equal or slightly smaller in diameter than the hips, unlike those of a man whose shoulders should be wider than his hips. A woman’s should seem most beautiful when they slope downwards from the neck.

If the arms hang freely, the middle fingers should reach the middle of the thigh, says Mrs T. A. Langridge, the well-known physical culture, expert. The upper arms should measure about two inches less than twice the length of the hands, the hands being approximately one-tenth the length of the body. The fore arm should be one and a half times the length of the hands. The distance from the beginning of the hair on the forehead to the beginning of the nose should be equivalent to the distance from one end of the nose to the other, while both should be the same length as he distance from the base of the nose to the base of the chin.

The neck should be slightly less in circumference than the calf _of the leg. The bust should measure about one and a half inches less than the hips in girth, while the waist should be an inck and a half more than twice the circumference of the knees. The thigh should be three times the circumference of the wrist, and the girth of the knee should be the same as that of the calf. The knee "should be in the exact middle of the lower extremity, while the foot should measure about half the distance from the knee to the ankle. Six and a half foot lengths should equa l the height of the body.

The “perfect” figure, says the N.S.W. Director of Physical Education is difficult to assess.

Mr Young quoted the case of the late Dr. Robert Tait McKenzie, of the McGill University, Canada, who sought models with perfect figures for his anatomy classes. He couldn’t find anybody who completely came up %

to standard so modelled his own demonstration figures. Later his statues of men and women athletes became known throughout the world. Mannequins seldom have “perfect” figures. Their job requires that they be above normal height, have wider shoulders, slimmer hips. Film stars, too —even Joan Crawford. Eleanor Powell and Marlene Dietrich—don't comply with “beauty quest” measurements. Which is by way of consolation when you review the results of that “overhaul” with the tape measure. But then, of course, clever photography, expert costuming and that indefinable asset, “personality plus” and there to offset disparity in figure

proportion. Mr T. A. Langridge, who has judged dozens of beauty contests, supplies the following table of measurements:

Height sft. 3in., neck 12, bust 31. waist ’24, hips 33i, thigh 20, calf 123, upperarm 91, forearm 8?,, wrist 51, age 20, weight 7.5. Height sft 4in, neck 12, bust 311, waist 24, hips 32, thigh 201, calf 12, upperarm 91, forearm 81, wrist 6, age 19, weight 8.0.

Height sft. 6in., neck 13, bust 34, waist 25, hips 40, thigh 24, calf 14£, upperarm 11, forearm 10, wrist G, age 23, weight 9.6. xHeight sft. 3in., neck 12J, bust 331, waist 274,. hips 361, .thigh 21, calf 14, upperarm 111, forearm 101, \ wrist 6i. x Indicates the supposed classical ideal as represented by the statue of the Venus de Milo.