Body type
The 13 body types
Five families, thirteen types. Every type is a position on three axes — bone structure, flesh and facial features — which is also what the questionnaire scores, so a result can always be traced back to the axis that moved it.
Reading the three axes
The thing worth understanding before you read any individual page: this is a system aboutline, not size. It does not tell you what to weigh or what size to buy. It describes the shape your frame already makes, and which cuts follow that shape instead of arguing with it. Two people at the same height and weight can sit at opposite ends of it.
Bone structure
Small and rounded ↔ Long and sharp
Flesh
Soft and curved ↔ Lean and straight
Facial features
Round and full ↔ Narrow and sculpted
The thirteen, by family
Most people who look this up have already been told a type by a quiz somewhere and are trying to work out whether it fits. The fastest way to settle it is to read the two types either side of the one you were given — the comparison pages exist for exactly that — rather than reading your assigned type on its own and looking for confirmation.
Dramatic
2 typesLong, sharp bone structure. The line these types want is unbroken and vertical — one long column rather than a waist-and-hem sequence.
- Dramaticalso written Pure Dramaticbone +3 · flesh +3 · face +3Dramatic is the far yang corner of this taxonomy: a long, sharply built frame with little flesh over it and a face cut in clear planes. All three axes give the same instruction, which is why the type is simple to dress and easy to underdress — go long, go clean, and go large enough in scale to match the bone you actually have.
- Soft Dramaticalso written SDbone +3 · flesh -2 · face -2Soft Dramatic puts real fullness and soft, rounded features on a long, wide, sharply built frame. It is the type where the shoulder and the flesh disagree with each other, and dressing it means keeping the length the bone asks for while cutting enough room for the curve that is actually there. Tailoring alone will not do it, and neither will draping alone.
Natural
3 typesWide, blunt bone structure. Their line is loose and slightly undone; anything tightly fitted or highly constructed reads as fighting the frame.
- Flamboyant Naturalalso written FNbone +2 · flesh +2 · face +1Flamboyant Natural is width without edges: a large, blunt-boned frame with broad shoulders, long limbs and visible joints, carrying lean flesh and a face that is defined rather than carved. It wants clothes that are big, relaxed and unlined, and it is the type that most reliably looks wrong in a sharply structured suit that would flatter a narrower frame of the same height.
- Soft Naturalalso written SNbone +2 · flesh -1 · face -1Soft Natural is a wide, blunt-boned frame carrying softness instead of lean muscle: broad shoulders and long limbs, but a real bust, a real hip, and features that round off at the edges. It needs the ease of a Natural and the shaping of a Romantic at the same time, which is why so many people land here and then dress it as one or the other and wonder why it half-works.
- Naturalalso written Pure Naturalbone +1 · flesh +1 · face +1Natural is the moderate middle of the yang side: a slightly broad, blunt-edged frame with lean but not taut flesh, and features that are defined without being sharp. Nothing about it is extreme, which is exactly what makes it hard to self-diagnose — and why practitioners now often route people who land here toward one of its two neighbors instead.
Gamine
3 typesSmall, sharp bone structure. Their line is broken on purpose — separates, contrast, deliberate pieces rather than one flowing shape.
- Flamboyant Gaminealso written FGbone -1 · flesh +3 · face +3Flamboyant Gamine is the sharpest of the small-framed types: a compact skeleton carrying taut, straight flesh and features cut in hard, narrow lines. The frame says keep it short and broken up; the flesh and face say keep it crisp and graphic. Get both right and the result reads as deliberate rather than merely small, which is the whole difficulty of the type.
- Gaminealso written Pure Gaminebone -2 · flesh +1 · face +1Gamine is the moderate small type: a compact frame with short limbs, flesh that is slightly lean rather than taut, and features that are defined without being carved. It dresses in pieces rather than in single long shapes, and it is the type most often mistaken for simply being petite — which it is not, since the diagnosis is about proportion and edge, not about height.
- Soft Gaminealso written SGbone -3 · flesh -1 · face -1Soft Gamine is the smallest frame in this taxonomy carrying a little softness on top of it: a compact skeleton with short limbs, a waist that is genuinely there, and features that round off at the edges without ever going large. It wants clothes that are small in scale, clearly shaped and broken into parts — fitted rather than flowing, and detailed rather than plain.
Classic
3 typesModerate on every axis. Symmetry is the point, and the risk is not looking wrong but looking like nothing at all.
- Dramatic Classicalso written DCbone +3 · flesh 0 · face +2Dramatic Classic keeps the long, wide, sharply built frame of the yang end but balances the body underneath it and softens the face by one degree. It is the type precise tailoring was invented for: clean, symmetrical and elongated, wanting one sharp detail per outfit rather than none and rather than half a dozen.
- Classicalso written Pure Classicbone 0 · flesh 0 · face 0Classic is the origin of the coordinate system: bone, flesh and features all sitting in the balanced middle with nothing pulling in either direction. That makes it the hardest type to identify from a mirror and the easiest one to dress badly, because moderation is not blandness and "anything works" is the wrong conclusion to draw from a balanced reading.
- Soft Classicalso written SCbone 0 · flesh -1 · face -1Soft Classic keeps the balanced, symmetrical frame of a Classic and adds one degree of softness to the body and the face. It wants the same moderate, well-cut shapes with the hard edges taken off — a rounded lapel instead of a pressed point, a fluid crepe instead of a crisp worsted — and it goes wrong whenever only one half of that instruction gets followed.
Romantic
2 typesSmall, rounded bone with soft flesh. Their line is curved and their fabrics give; sharp tailoring cuts across the shape rather than following it.
- Theatrical Romanticalso written TRbone -1 · flesh -3 · face -1Theatrical Romantic is the most curved body in this taxonomy set on a small, slightly delicate frame — with one thing cutting against all that softness, usually a cheekbone or a jaw that keeps a visible edge. It needs shaped, fluid clothing at a modest scale, and it needs one sharp detail per outfit to stop the whole effect from going saccharine.
- Romanticalso written Pure Romanticbone -3 · flesh -3 · face -3Romantic is the far yin corner of this taxonomy: a small, delicate frame, emphatically soft flesh, and features that are round and full with nothing sharp anywhere. All three axes give the same instruction, which makes it simple to dress and easy to over-correct — most people who land here have spent years being told to add structure, which is the one thing this line does not want.