The author has studied the effect of clothes design to mask the dorsal curvature that is one of the commonest changes in elderly women. Body measurements including the body type and the status of dorsal curvature were perfor-med on 153 women of over 60 years of age, and then a body form to fit to the mean measure-ments was made to evaluate the effects of various designs to it. With 31 pattern designs modified by changing in their slash lines and gathers using darts, the diminishing effect of the rounded back were evaluated by means of sensory test. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: I . Results from the body measurements 1) The mean body type in elderly women was that of obesity. 2) With the advancement of age, the angle to indicate the degree of dorsal curvature as well as the angle to indicate the posture are increased. II . Concerning to the clothes design to diminish the shape of dorsal curvature 1) Among the designs by the position of darts, the basic pattern (Fig. 5-1-(1)) showed the best effect to mask the shape of dorsal curvature. 2) Out of the applied designs of princess lines, that in which the slash line is pointing toward the shoulder point (Fig. 5-2-(1)) seemed to be most effective. 3) What has angled princess line (Fig. 5-3-(1)) had the most diminishing effect among the waist darts and armhole princess lines. 4) Among the V-shaped designs, the slashed at the shoulder point (Fig. 5-4-(1)) had the best effect to lessen the shape of the dorsal cuuature. 5) Wider angle yoke had better effect to the narrow angle one among the designs with straight yoke, and that with downward direction (Fig. 5-5-(1)) showed the best effect. 6) Between straight wide angle yoke and curved yoke, that of curved one with downward direction (Fig. 5-6-(1)) had better effect as far as the masking effect of dorsal curvature is concerned. 7) Gathers around the neck showed better effect to those around the shoulder, and the more amount of gathers (Fig. 5-7-(1)), there was better effect. 8) The design with midline gathers at the level of horizontal slash line of armhole (Fig. 5-8-(1)) showed better effect to that with seperated gathers. 9) In case of design with gathers at the horizontal line of armhole, it showed the better effect with less amount of gathers in midline ones, but with more amount in the side ones. 10) Considering all 7 different designs with better effect in covering the shape of dorsal curvature, it was evident that the design with gathers was far better than the design with application of slash lines.