Suits You
6 minute read
I’ll hold my hands up right now and admit that I’m watching Love Island. As I write this feature, I’m three episodes into a total of 244, and the sun-drenched game of love and loyalty already has me hooked. But as a fashion editor, I’ll admit, I’m as fascinated by the swimwear on show as I am by the boy-girl dynamics. Neon hues, under-boobs, suggestive cut-outs, itsy bitsy briefs; while I might shift uncomfortably on the sofa as bum cheeks flash up on my TV screen more often than flushed faces, I can’t but admire the body confidence of these young women. Over 40, however, it takes a little more fabric and a much more considered fit for our swimwear to inspire anything like the kind of peacocking particular to this Majorcan villa.
Many of us have a love/hate relationship with swimwear. For me, a piece of swimwear is like a pair of jeans – exhausting and often demoralising to shop, but when I find the right one, it seems like no other item of clothing could make me feel better about my body. Unfortunately, shopping for swimwear is a classic case of ‘no pain, no gain’. It’s a little like Love Island in fact. Just like the contestants, you see something you like the look of, imagine all kinds of fun in the sun, but after a day by the pool, it winds up making you feel like shit. This has been poor Faye’s experience with Brad so far, and in the same way that this 26-year-old will need to kiss more than a few frogs before she finds her Prince Charming, I’ve tried on many unsuitable swimwear options over the years before I discovered ‘the one’.
In my late 20s, for instance, I had a brief flirtation with a string bikini in a Topshop changing room. Although everyone from Kate Moss to Cameron Diaz was wearing them in the noughties, I knew immediately that it wasn’t right for me. I viewed the tooth floss-like two-piece the same way Hugo does Sharon – just not something I’d bring home and present to my mother. It didn’t fit my body or my personality. I needed more substance, a piece of swimwear that would make me look neat and petite rather than me making it look dinky and diminutive.
Perhaps this is why I draw my beach style inspiration from the generously cut, figure flattering swimwear of the 1950s. If I was to choose my favourite fashion decade overall, it would be the 1920s for evening wear and the 1970s for daywear. I adore the silk drop-waist dresses of the flapper era – modest but suggestive at the same time – while a ribbed polo-neck and a pair of denim flares always make me feel as if I’m on the right side of retro. But my favourite swimwear references all date from the Golden Age of Hollywood glamour, from MGM movies and iconic stars of the silver screen: Marilyn Monroe wearing a coral bandeau one-piece in How To Marry A Millionaire; Deborah Kerr’s belted playsuit in From Here To Eternity; Jane Russell’s big bottomed print bikini in Underwater.
I’m drawn to these styles because on the one hand, they look really comfortable. They require none of the tugging, pulling and pinching that the girls on Love Island regularly engage in to prevent their swimsuits and bikinis from disappearing entirely up their bums or from riding right over their boobs. As dull and middle-aged as the word comfort might sound, the reality is that there’s nothing sexier or more attractive than someone who is comfortable in their own skin, and relaxed in what they wear.
As we age, the style equations by which we calculate our outfits change dramatically. For the 20-somethings on Love Island, butt cheeks + underboob = sexy. For me at 46, shoulders + ankles = sexy. A fifties-style swimsuit shapes, smooths and suggests, leaving only those more sensuous parts of the body exposed and sun-kissed. It’s generous in the amount of coverage it offers, but tantalizing in the way it sculpts and showcases the most feminine of silhouettes. Last year, I invested in a Norma Kamali one-piece from Net-A-Porter. I’m not sure if it was the Covid half stone or awareness that my shape was fundamentally changing as I move through my forties, but I felt it was time to search outside of the high street and buy a suit for my shape as it is now, rather than try desperately to slim down into swimwear I bought ten years ago.
With a sweetheart neckline, a very forgiving cut around the bum and thighs – it offers almost a straight cut across my thighs, which minimises them beautifully and creates a better balance between the proportions of my shoulders and hips – and ruching from side to side, this Kamali swimsuit gently but firmly holds my frame in shape, creating the most sophisticated (I think) of silhouettes. More importantly, I feel like the best version of myself when I wear it. It flatters my body and reflects my personality – there’s always been a slightly puritanical element to my style because I simply love to be covered up; for clothes to hint at rather than hammer home.
Cover-ups, then, are as important for me in summer as the swimwear itself. Irish label Mona Swims (available from Brown Thomas until September) creates the most stunning 100% silk kaftans and beach dresses. They’re almost too beautiful (and pricey) to wear to a sandy cove, but they would make the most divine evening wear in summer. The exquisitely printed pieces define grown-up sexiness to me because, like my fifties-style swimwear, they play a game of conceal and reveal with their beautifully diaphanous fabric, single-shoulder or deep V-neck designs and subtle asymmetric hemlines.
The success of my Norma Kamali purchase has convinced me that swimwear shopping is one form of retail therapy that I won’t be returning to ‘IRL’. Virtual shopping, trying on at home, then returning – or not as the case may be – is far more conducive to body-positive thoughts and a fabulous-over-40 attitude. It’s amazing what the right piece of swimwear can do for a woman. In my Kamali one-piece, I feel I could hold my head high beside any one of those beautiful 20-something Love Islanders. Of course, there’s little chance I’ll be hanging out in a Majorcan villa this summer. The likelihood is I’ll be wearing my kick-ass Kamali swimsuit down at the Forty Foot. Too much for the rocky Sandycove swimmers hub? Not if it makes me happy, I reckon.
Marie Kelly, July 2021
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