Dapper demeanor

to bikini or not to bikini?

—it is the ultimate summer question, is it not? As the temperatures rise beyond bearable and the nearest bodies of water call out with a feverish desire akin to the sirens of Greek mythology, it’s all one can do to not break down and make the mistake of buying the least expensive OR smallest swimsuit she can find, and wear it to work, around town and beyond. At this point, your coworkers are lucky you are wearing clothes at all!

Some of the incorrect assumptions women make about swimsuits:

I’m too curvy to wear a bikini!

I’m too old to wear a monokini!

I’m too thin/flat chested for a one-piece!

Swim skirts are boring and for moms only!

This post is about finding the right swimsuit for you. Some of you are guilty of wearing too little. Some of you are guilty of wearing too much. Some of you are guilty of wearing suits of such low quality, you can see through them after a couple of swim sessions. There have been hundreds of articles about this subject, but if there is one summer staple that I believe in spending good, hard earned money on, it’s a swimsuit! Therefore, I post. Read on!

Be prepared to spend (or catch a sale at the end of the season and hold onto a quality suit for next summer). Because a swim suit covers so little of your body, it is essential to find something of quality construction if only to ensure that the garment stays put! Nothing is worse than getting out of the water and a strap falls to the side or the bottom is a wee bit saggy. BLEH! Not to mention the other necessary swimsuit job duties such as holding the girls up and in place, elongating a short torso, lengthening legs, balancing wide shoulders, minimizing voluptuous bottoms. You get what you pay for. Generic stores like Target and Wal-Mart may hire designers such as Liberty of London and Max Azria to apply their high end styles to basic suits, but the suits remain basic. A basic suit is not designed to nip, tuck, lift, separate, hold things in place, or anything else besides look pretty. So unless you happen to be a size 2 with 17% body fat and thighs that don’t touch (which, if you fit this bill, lucky you that you can get a less expensive suit!), stay away from these swimsuits clearly designed for a mannequin’s body.

I want to say one more thing before you go off to find a special suit of your very own. Sometimes more is more. The return of the one-piece as a sexy, flattering swim competitor this season should make each of us reevaluate wearing the tiny string bikini for general swim occasions. On the flip side, the swim skirt is making the bikini a reality for many women who never thought they could wear one! I have a friend who is quite curvy and swears by Land’s End swim minis paired with a nice supportive full coverage top as her bikini pairing of choice. You’ve got to really try on lots of options before you can just make assumptions like: