Today’s women want curves like Nigella

The TV chef's classic hourglass shape is the figure to aim for

When it comes to the perfect body shape, women are rejecting the boyish straight-up-and-down look paraded by the likes of the teeny-tiny Cheryl Cole in favour of Nigella Lawson's hourglass figure.

Her generous curves topped the list of figures that women would most like to have themselves. In fact two in three yearn for an hourglass 'in and out' figure, a survey of 2,000 women found.

Miss Lawson topped the poll when the women were asked whose figure they found most inspiring. She was followed by the womanly Dame Helen Mirren (whose photo last year in a red bikini was regarded as the epitome of mature glamour), the elegant Dame Judi Dench and Kate Winslet, a curvy English rose.

Leaner shapes, along with the out-of-proportion figure of Katie Price, were no longer regarded as ideal.

A third of British women (35%) saw themselves as apple-shaped with an undefined waistline. A further 25% claimed to be pear-shaped with a big bottom.

Only 13% of women regarded themselves as the perfect hourglass. But a whopping 65% dream of acquiring this shape.

The poll, carried out for Special K breakfast cereal, suggests it is shape rather than size which is most important to women these days. ‘The report shows that women's attitudes to slimming over the last 50 years have changed with their figures,’ said a spokesman for the brand.

‘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 instead of being the perfect size 10.’

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