The purpose of this study is to extract information on human postures from side view contours of human bodies and classify human postures quantitatively. Materials are photographs of 193 female students taken in 1964. We examined them by the method of principal component analysis. The following results are obtained : 1) Two principal components of human postures are extracted. One expresses the degree of erectness or stoop of the figure. The other expresses the amount of curvature of the posture around waist. 2) The use of these components enables human postures to be classified quantitatively. 3) Indices at the bust, waist and hips expressing the thickness of the body have no relations to the two components. Since these components are considered very important factors for clothing construction, we think that it may be necessary to measure and take these factors on designing dummies or patterns for manufacturing clothes.