How you can be a bikini bragger (even if you’re over 50)
A heatwave. Holidays back on ... but are you brave enough to slip back in a two-piece? Top swimwear designer Melissa Odabash insists there’s a style to suit every age and shape
After weeks of lashing rain and grey skies, the sun has finally come out. And boy is it shining.
temperatures could soar as high as 34c tomorrow, making it hotter than Ibiza. So in good old British fashion, many of us will be flocking to the beach to make the most of the sun before the heatwave is predicted to break this weekend.
And there’s more good news, too. We may be able to go on holiday abroad within a fortnight, as ministers negotiate ‘air bridges’ with countries including Spain, Greece and Italy. And for millions of women such as myself, that means one thing: it’s time to dig out your bikini.
I’m already dreaming of lying on a beach in Saint-tropez, drink in hand, wearing my favourite pink triangle bikini, with gold rings on the hips — with at least a couple dozen more to see me through the week, so I never have to sit in a wet swimsuit. And the scores of celebrities modelling their beachwear on Instagram shows me I’m not alone.
However, while lithe 20- somethings will be throwing on their skimpy swimwear with abandon, many older women will be reaching for a more modest swimming costume, convinced that their bikini days are behind them.
Well, I’m here to tell you this doesn’t have to be the case. Just look at the fabulous bikini pictures posted by Brooke Shields, 55, recently. Looking glamorous and exuding confidence in a bright two-piece, she was a sight for sore eyes. And that’s not just because the bikini in question was one of mine.
If ever an image were to challenge the perceived wisdom that a woman over 50 should consider her bikini days behind her, then this was it. She looked amazing; a true celebration of womanhood.
Ah, but she is an actress and former model, you cry. She looks nothing like your average middle-aged mortal. She doesn’t have to worry about a sagging bottom, wobbly thighs or a deflated cleavage. I hear you.
Brooke stands alongside Cindy Crawford, 54, Helen Hunt, 57 — who dazzled in a black bikini in Malibu this month — Christie Brinkley, 66, et al, a stable of beautiful women whose supermodel bodies appear ageless. Of course she still looks good in a bikini.
But, as a former swimwear model due to enter my 50s later this year, I know her body will have its own flaws and idiosyncrasies, just like any other woman’s. She chooses to work with them.
How deeply it saddens me that so o many women reach a certain age and d decide their bodies must be covered up p — somehow convinced fellow beachgoers huy must be spared whatever particular imperfections they happen to bear.
Who says you must be physically perfect to be allowed to experience the e simple pleasure of feeling the sun and d air against bare skin? By the age of 50, a woman is ready to shake off the mantles s of self-loathing; able to embrace the e changes that the years have brought as s emblems of a life well-lived, and to hell ll with what anyone else thinks.
After more than 20 years as a swimwear ar designer, selling bikinis to the discerning g public as well as celebrities including g Beyonce, rihanna and Halle Berry, I can n assure you no woman thinks her body is s beyond improvement.
But the secret of bikini confidence is s this: accept your imperfections and work with what you’ve got. Here, I share my top ten tips to help over-50s women get it right in a bikini as you head back to the beach this summer . . .