The tripartite breast outline.

This post is the third part of a discussion that begins in the post: “A picture is worth a thousand words”

The tripartite waist outline is the waist outline measurement, which includes two complementary measurements. It is a tailoring measurement method.

It distributes the width-pieces of a pattern easily; never mind the sex of the body.

We include in the last post image, the arms sections, sagittal axe (pointed & dashed line), delete the feminine breast outline and we draw the left part of the image in half-transparency.

We measure the complete breast outline from A to A contouring the trunk. The measuring tape must be parallel to the floor, graze the armpits, and pass on the nipples. This outline must be divided by two (length from A to D), because patronage considers a body to be symmetrical. The breast outline is a trunk’s contour and the axe of symmetry is the sagittal axe (A-D).

We measure the tripartite breast outline as the regular breast outline, but we will mark the last number that we can see before the arm hides the measuring tape, and the first number that we can see after the arm.

It is better to measure the complete outline and divide it by two than to measure the distance between A and D directly. One-half breast part is always greater than the other one because the unequal pectoral muscle development. The variation between the right and left parts is equal to one cm or more. Half of the complete breast-outline calculates directly an average between right and left parts.

The distance between A and B is the width of the back measured along the horizontal armpit level line.

The distance between B and C is the width of the base of the armpit rectangle.

The distance between c and D is the width of the front part along the horizontal armpit level line.

We draw two breasts on the masculine breast-outline. Let us imagine a man wearing a padded bra.

We find the length variation between the old and the new breast-outline in the distance between C and D. C’-D is longer than C-D.

The same man with a padded bra with larger cups will be like this:

The new outline increases only section C-D’’

The section A-C (section A-B plus section B-C) increases in a constant proportion between male and female breast-outlines, as we see in the anterior post.

The variation between male and female outlines is located in the section C-D. This section increases in the female contour. It does not increase constantly and proportionally compared to the male breast outline.

In upper items patronage we can affirm that a woman is a man with breasts.

When we measure female breast-outline, normally we draw a line between the nipples. The metric tape does not touch the sternum skin.

If we measure a female breast-outline touching the sternum skin, the distance between C and D increases.

The female contour without the breast is the thorax outline (female thorax-outline is the same as the male breast-outline).

The female contour that does not touch the sternum is the female breast-outline.

The female contour that touches the sternum is the corset breast-outline.

The male chest-outline is the male breast-outline.

Those outlines and their differences are very important to trace good female patterns.

The shortest of the three outlines is the thorax one and the longest is the corset breast outline.

The sections A -B and B-C are the widths of the back and side-body pieces without enlargements. The section C-D is the front piece.

The first two sections are close to the thoracic cage; the last section includes the female morphological variations.

Male and female thoracic cages are equal but not identical. Because of their equality we can trace the patterns of the pieces of back and side-body of male and female in the same way. The front female will be traced in exactly the same way as the male one (the man without the bra) and after that, we will include some differences to adjust the pattern to the morphological female differences.

A pattern can have several different front parts because of the differents female breast developments, as we show in the next image.

Now, two questions:

How do you measure a thorax-outline?

On which outline (thorax or breast) are the female sizes based?

The answers to those questions will arrive in the next posts.