Hurrah! Swimsuits just got super sexy
EVERY so often, the one-piece trumps the bikini, and we are right in the middle of one of those moments. Who knows why now?
Maybe we’ve reached bikini saturation point. Maybe the one-piece has novelty value, or its relative modesty is refreshing. (I’m not saying you want to wear a swimming costume to ‘be modest’, but you might fancy baring a bit less at the beach).
Personally, I like to wear a bikini when possible. I’m aware of the virtues of a one- piece — the silhouette- enhancing, curvy-bitsconcealing pros — but even so, a onepiece seems the dullest alternative. It’s ingrained in our fashion DNA: bikini equals young and sexy; the one-piece is your mum on a blowy beach with a cardigan draped around her shoulders.
It’s the great fashion age divider, regardless of how hot Jerry Hall looked in her Seventies prime or how good Princess Diana looked in swimsuits — remember the bright aqua one? The leopard-print one?
We just don’t think of the one-piece as fashionably credible. Which is probably why former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman chose a Boden twopiece for her brilliantly bold Instagram shot.
BuT
this summer it’s all change: the swimming costume is cool, in both senses. The athleisurewear trend has given everyone a taste for streamlined and sporty, bumping the one-piece into the fashion frontline.
Sweaty Betty’s swimsuits and Stella McCartney for Adidas may be designed to enhance swimming performance, but they also sculpt your shape and support you where you need it — a cracker is Sweaty Betty’s Free Dive ( sweatybetty.com, £80).
New high- performance fabrics mean you can stay cool and get the smooth lines you don’t get with a bikini.
This is what you forget about a swimming costume: it doesn’t flatter your figure like a wellcut bikini, it gives you a figure. The new costumes are like Spanx for the sea; they pull you in, prop you up, and give you a waist and flat tummy. What’s not to love?
The best include Figleaves underwired shaping swimsuit ( figleaves. com, £ 58) with trompe l’oeil edging that narrows the silhouette; Figleaves Tuscany Tummy Control for £38; and M&S Collection Secret Slimming Colour Block Wrap Over Swimsuit ( marksandspencer.
com, £29.50). There’s an elegance about a one-piece, too. Remember Emma Thompson sunning herself on a pontoon in Cannes earlier this summer? She looked sleek and confident, which is what you get with a good colour-block costume.
Nothing gives you that Monica Bellucci sex goddess vibe quite like the right onepiece. Pain de Sucre do one with a stud front which is pure Bond Girl, but not half as revealing as a bikini.
You need to bear a few rules in mind if you want to give the one-piece a try (which you definitely do). Keep the style simple; too much fuss ruins the point of a classy one-piece, though there’s nothing wrong with a lace-up front. The look now is not, thankfully, about a high leg, but mid-height is the way to go; a straight line will shorten your legs.
Halternecks are always flattering and give you extra lift, such as Melissa Odabash’s Dominica halterneck ( odabash.com, £ 202). Some structure, with in-built cups, for instance, works for most of us, and ruching and draping does wonders for disguising tummies (for both, try Figleaves Illusion Draped Firm Control Swimsuit for £45).
The look to be right on the money now is bold, bright and colour-blocked — orange with pink, pink with navy — with cut-outs if you dare. But watch out for scooped-away sides and wide open low backs — they do no one any favours.
Note the way these onepieces are ‘Secret Slimming’ or ‘Firm Controlling’, all working hard to make us look our beach best without us having to lift a finger. Don’t you just love your swimwear being in control?