An Analysis of Upper-Body Shapes in Obese Women for Apparel Pattern Design

Abstract: The percentage of overweight people has increased in older people due to the change of body shape (including pregnancy and giving birth for women). Obesity is accompanied by body shape changes; subsequently, there are more pat-tern design considerations compared to standard body shapes. This paper classifies the upper body shape of overweight women in Korea, analyzes features by body shape and proposes basic pattern design data that reflects the features of plus-size women body shapes. The data on 540 subjects in the overweight group (from 20 to 69 years old)whose BMI was over 25 was selected. The following features by shape were identified in accordance with the upper body shape clas-sification of overweight women. Body Shape1 had lower body obesity with long stature and arms in proportion to the trunk length and represented 22.2 % of the subjects. Body Shape2 had most parts near average sizes for overweight body shapes with short height and arms that represented 37.6 % of the subjects (the highest ratio). Body Shape3 was the small-est body shape in the four groups with the most distinct body figure and represented 30.7 % of the subjects. Body Shape4 (9.4 % of the subjects)was the upper body obesity type (the fattest group)and with of the waist bigger abdominal obesity type