Hello,
I was wondering myself the same question and over the years of research I've come to the following calculations.
Source material for my research were photos of women (most of the fashion icons and celebrities), and various clothing size charts and anthropometrical data I have been gathering for years.
Way one of telling if the shoulders are too wide is by comparing the with the head width. Some of you may know that average male shoulder is 3 times the width of the head. Some sources say that the number for females is 2. The latter is for the most part unprecise and does not encompass the true range of female shoulder width.
Generally, for the shoulder size as compared to head width, what you do is take a photo from full frontal angle (with as little as possible vertical abberation) and measure the optical width of your head at the widest part - over the ears, or if your hair covers your ears, just measure the width where you judge your helixes might be.
Next, take the measurement of the biacromial width of your shoulders. For more plump ladies, do not measure the deposits on the side of your arms past the deltoid. The best is if you can measure between each shoulder bones (for reference try to feel it and guess where it might be on the picture).
Divide shoulder width by head width and you should get a number of somewhere between 2 and 3. For more precise results upload the image to your computer and zoom in.
- From my calculations I've done over the years is range for female shoulder-to-head ratio for most women is between 2 to 2.6. Anything bigger than 2.66 falls outside of female range.
Off course, for women with fuller hairdos, they would most likely fall in the lower ranges, and women with narrower faces and thus heads should not be concerned for hitting the upper ranges or even falling a bit out.
On the other side, there is another way of telling if one's shoulders are wide, and that is by comparing to the hips width, at the widest point. (For lack of photos of full body figures that aren't taken at an angle I've used charts and anthropometric data)
Measure your shoulders bone-to-bone, measure your hips at the widest point (I know it is difficult, but there are ways; stand in corner of the room, press lightly against one wall with your hip, put a triangular ruler at the other hips so it touches your hip and lays perpendicular to the wall, If you have someone to help you that would be preferable, and lastly measure between the point of the ruler and your oppossite side).
For most girls the difference between these two measurements is from 1 to 3 inches. Again, ladies with large body frame sizes will be ok if they stand close to the 3 inches margin, and slimmer girls and petite girl would most likely fall in the 1-2.5 range.
But generally, 2 to 3 inches difference looks ok on most women. And if you have an eye for this, you can see on that these kind of proportions on most women in real life.
I hope my input here will help anyone. Again, these are only my calculations and anyone can do a research on their own. Eitherway, have fun.
V.
