How to Choose the Right Swimwear

Baffled by bikinis? Frustrated with frills? Frump to Funky's Karen Grace guides pear-shapes, inverted triangles, hourglass figures and skinny-minnies through the confusing world of swimwear to arrive at every woman's perfect style and fit.


Beach Style:
How To Choose The Right Swimwear

Choosing the right swimwear, you have to consider your body shape. Because you're exposing a lot of flesh, so you want to enhance your assets and hide your imperfections.

You also have to consider whether you're going to be active, doing water sports, water skiing, surfing, swimming, or you're just going to be relaxing on the beach. Now, if you're going to be active a swimsuit is the best, something with a racer back, like this, which will actually make sure that the straps don't slip off. So, if you're going to do a lot of water skiing or surfing, something like that would be quite good. Now, what it does, it's very tight-fitting so the water doesn't drag when you swim in it. But it's not really good for the larger woman, especially if she's got quite a large bust. Because it will flatten the bust and not give a very good shape. It will be quite boxy.
So, the larger woman needs to have something with still a lot of Lycra in, but with an actual cup. And this one is really good because it has an actual integrated bra inside so it gives quite a lot of support and the back is quite high because it's alright having an underwired swimsuit, but if the back is low, there's still not a lot of support. You could actually slip out in the front underneath the underwiring. So with the back, it makes sure that you're secured. This one does have separate bra straps as well for extra security. This also, if you have a larger tummy or have other imperfections that you want to conceal, it does have additional panels inside which brings your tummy in even more. This is great for swimming for the larger woman but also if you're just relaxing on the beach, it gives you a good shape.

The other swimsuit is a bandeau swimsuit which has no straps and goes straight across the top. Even if you've got underwiring, there's not much support in this. So, it's not really a good swimsuit for active water sports. It's more for relaxing on the beach. And also, it's quite good because it'll give you an even suntan line here because there's no straps. It's good for the pear-shaped woman because it brings more of the attention here. A bandeau top like this actually broadens your shoulders, so then it will balance out your shoulders with your wider hips.
What it isn't really good for is for the inverted triangle woman where she either has broad shoulders or she is top-heavy and she's got slim hips because it will bring more attention here, make the shoulders look broader and it brings more attention at the top. But for the pear-shaped woman, it's much better. The more detail on the top also brings the eye upwards.

If you don't want to go down the bikini route, and you don't want a swimsuit - you can always go for the tankini. This is good for concealing the tummy area and the Lycra - if there's plenty of Lycra in the fabric - will support the tummy.

Now, going on to bikinis, if you've a small frame, if your bust, your hips and your waist, there's not much difference, then a tiny bikini is ideal because it'll bring more attention to your slimmer legs and your pert bottom.

This is good for the pear-shaped because it has more detail on the top and less detail, plainer bottom. The little frilly skirt actually camouflages the hips so a little detail like that is okay. But if you're pear-shaped, always go for the plainer bottom.

If you're an inverted triangle shape where your bust is wider or broader on the shoulders and slim on the hips, you need to go for a plain top and then have patterned bottoms. The more pattern and the more buckles and frills you have on the bottom will actually detract away from your broad shoulders. So, that's quite a good look.

You can actually have the same - this is the same matching top - but that's probably for the hourglass figure where the hips and the bust are roughly the same.

For the larger busted lady, always go for the underwiring. It gives more support. And try to go for thicker straps as well which will give more support.

And that's how you choose the right swimwear.