BOTTOMS WAY UP
This summer’s skimpiest bikini is reminiscent of a sexy loincloth
‘ITSY bitsy teenie weenie” just doesn’t do justice to this scanty new swimsuit style. Bathing bombshells including Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Hadid are going crazy for a variation on a “tanga”: a high-cut, ruched adjustable-string bikini bottom that looks more like Tarzan’s loincloth than Pam Anderson’s “Baywatch” classic one-piece. “I think it’s great,” MJ Day, Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue editor, tells The Post. “Variety in swimwear is difficult to come by, so when you’re presented with a new option, it catches on quickly — especially when it’s really sexy.” Gorgeous supermodels aren’t the only ones sending that past favorite, the modest maillot, out to sea. Trendy labels such as Solid & Striped — whose Taylor Swift-approved one-piece was the It bathing suit of 2016 — have embraced the tiny tanga. Millennial-favorite brand Minimale Animale tells The Post it can’t keep the cheeky bottoms in stock. This isn’t the first time the loincloth has made a fashion splash. In 1980, Christie Brinkley sported a version of the tanga on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. That same year, Bo Derek — straight off the success of her beach movie “10” — rocked a rugged, fringed version on the cover of Playboy, as she promoted her upcoming film “Tarzan the Ape Man.” “It’s a throwback to the 1980s, really,” says Day of the bitty bottom. “It was kind of a popular style that you saw a lot back then.” “Tarzan” costume designer Patricia Edwards adapted Jane’s loincloth worn in the original 1932 flick for Derek, and “made it as small
as decently possible for the time,” costumer and historian Christina Mitchell tells The Post. The addition of ruching was a genius touch, she adds, “allowing some modesty because of its fullness,” and giving the trend broader appeal.
The tanga re-emerged last year, when Kate Upton sported the style in a Sports Illustrated swim shoot. But it’s Ratajkowski who really put the miniscule bottoms on the map, snapping endless selfies of herself in the looks she designed for her own swimwear line, Inamorata, which has become an Instagram favorite.
Fashion historian and Parsons professor Beth Dincuff credits Ratajkowski and the Kardashians for pushing swimwear trends to daring new heights — and lows. For the past few years, butt selfies, aka belfies, of such stars photographed from behind wearing ultra-high-cut one-pieces, have permeated our Instagram feeds. They just might be on their way out.
“I think the switch from one-piece suits that revealed the backside to the new tanga bikini is a progression in revealment,” Dincuff says. “It’s not just the back” that women are expected to flaunt now, “but the front as well.”
Indeed, pics of those same ladies posing in high-waisted bikini bottoms sparked the Internet moniker “hip cleavage,” which describes the crease that forms where the hips meet the upper thighs, created primarily when the subject is kneeling.
As minimal as it is, the tanga is actually quite forgiving and versatile, fashionistas say, thanks to its adjustable strings.
“You can adapt it to your liking, so you can make it go down in size, you can spread it out so it can fully cover your bottom; and you can make it more thongesque,” says Sports Illustrated’s Day. “You have a lot of options in one little tiny bathing suit bottom.”