Shape — not size — matters to women

BRITISH women are less concerned with squeezing into a size 10 dress than getting a curvy hourglass shape like Nigella Lawson, according to a survey published yesterday.

Despite 60% of women admitting to being an “apple” or “pear” shape, 75% hanker after the defined waistline of the figure that Marilyn Monroe made famous and just 10% said they wanted to slim into size 10.

The majority of those questioned — 70% — said it was their shape, not their size, that was most important and respondents were more likely to aspire to a size 14 than any other.

But it seems slimmers still have their work cut out if they want to achieve the curves they admire with only 13% of those questioned saying they could boast the coveted hourglass shape.

In a survey of 2000 women for Kellogg’s Special K, those questioned said that they were inspired by the figures of curvier celebrities like Kate Winslet, Kirsty Allsopp and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Stars with skinny boyish figures like Kate Moss or Nicole Ritchie failed to make an appearance in respondents’ top 10 of inspirational female forms.

Women also admitted to getting a boost from seeing shapely older women in the public eye with older actresses Helen Mirren and Judi Dench beating off competition from their younger counterparts.

Seeing shapely — not skinny — women on TV and curvy celebrities like Charlotte Church who have bagged good-looking partners like Gavin Henson give women more confidence about their shape, according to the survey.

Laura Bryant from Special K said: “The report shows that women’s attitudes to slimming over the last 50 years have changed with their figures.

“It seems British women have lost their waists but now they are demanding them back.

“They are more concerned about getting a curvy hourglass shape like their grandmothers instead of being the perfect size 10 which shows a marked shift in attitude from the 80s and 90s when success and failure when slimming was benchmarked against fitting into certain sized clothes.”