Talk about your nerve-jangling summer adventures. No, not Batman or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. For many women, it’s those countless forays into the dressing room in search of a bathing suit that won’t expose every bulge or sag. This summer, however, has provided some relief from the unforgiving itsy- bitsy bikini. Enter the fashionable swimsuit.
New swimwear is revealing less, not more, of the skin and using an array of design and construction tricks to camouflage body flaws. Higher necklines and underwire bras help disguise a large bust; ruffles and other upper-body froufrous distract from a small one. Lower-cut legs and flirty little skirts divert attention from big hips and thighs, while high waistlines, belts and stomach-control panels are doing their bit to hide the belly.
Most major suitmakers are in the covered-up swim. Designers Adrienne Vittadini and Randolph Duke are among those who have swirled out skirted suits, while Norma Kamali recalls the 1940s with long-line swimwear featuring elegant drapery. Former Hollywood star Esther Williams has lent her name to a line of classic one-piece suits reminiscent of her costumes in films like Neptune’s Daughter. Using a bit of verbal camouflage, Body Glove Apparel, a California outfit, says its line is “cut for the Midwestern frame,” and Sandcastle is doing well with a collection intended to “minimize common figure problems like heavy thighs, tummy bulge and wide hips.” A Gottex suit that covers up lower-abdomen paunch with a strategically placed cummerbund has drawn more than 15,000 orders through the Spiegel catalog alone.
The draped shape can be traced to those ubiquitous trend setters, the baby boomers. The generation that grew up in the let-it-all-hang-out ’60s has found that by age 35 or 40, it may be time to start holding some of it in. Sales of women’s swimwear have fallen in recent years, and the aging of the population is probably one reason. “Women were complaining that they couldn’t find appropriate bathing suits,” says Ruth Rubinstein of New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology. “Most were made for the very young who had perfect bodies.” Asserts John Rogoff, senior vice president of Excelsior, which markets the Esther Williams line: “There’s a tremendous trend toward modesty and conservatism.”
The advent of more ample suits may also reflect a greater concern about skin cancer and other damaging effects of the sun. “The fashion suit is for a sophisticated dresser who is not interested in tanning,” says Kamali, “but is being more specific about what looks good on her.” Any skin-protection benefits, of course, are minimal: a few extra inches of fabric are no substitute for a No. 20 sunblock — or a place in the shade.
Bikinis of dental-floss dimensions are hardly an endangered species, as any visitor to the beaches of Long Island or Southern California can attest. And designers point out that no miracle of construction can transform a middle- aged woman into a sleek postadolescent. “No matter what kind of suit you put on,” says Anne Klein designer Louis Dell’Olio, “if you’re fat, you’re fat.”
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