And ignore all the naysayers who says you shouldn’t and can’t

Reading the words “midlife bikini” — as in a bikini worn by women in their forties and beyond — will strike you one of two ways. Either you’ ll think: “You Must Be Joking” or, “Yes? What About Them?” and the funny thing is your response will have less to do with your body than your style.

I have a friend who is as skinny as a rope and a bit of tomboy — if looking fit was the only criteria of midlife bikini wearing, she’d be there — but as it happens she wears a navy one piece with a white trim. She thinks it’s more fresh and less try hard. I know fit women who have worn swimming costumes since their twenties, and others who let it all hang out in a bikini, their one rule being there’s nothing wrong with a bit of tummy so long as it’s tanned.

A one piece in a hot climate is purgatory and you may feel like you are