Ask the Strategist: Swimsuits for Big Boobs, Pregnant Bellies, and Every Hyperspecific Need
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In our advice column, “Ask the Strategist,” we take your most burning shopping questions and survey friends, call up experts, and draw on our own personal experience to answer them. If you have an online-shopping question of your own, please send it to strategist@nymag.com with the subject “Ask the Strategist.” We’re here to help.
I need a chic one-piece for long torsos from somewhere besides Andie or J.Crew.
Thankfully,Lands’ End,Boden, andL.L.Beanhave a lot of options in long-torso sizing!
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Boden’s Skiathos, Minori, and Arles would fit right in the Hamptons — and the Rockaways.
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Boat and Totenot included but encouraged.
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It’s Norma Kamali–ish on a strictLands’ Endbudget.
Every year it’s the same search, and every year I come up dissatisfied. I am someone who is looking for a one-piece with a truly full-coverage bottom and a V-neck. I like to show my cleavage but want to cover my butt. Can you find me this impossible combo?
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This should about cover it, as it’s recommended by Dominique Pariso, whoonly wears swimsuits that cover her butt. I love the wonderfully not-too-lowV-neck.
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And Pariso, who tried all ofSummersalt’s swimsuits, “felt held in in all the right places” wearing Summersalt’s Backflip.
I am desperate for a swimsuit for big boobs (36H, size 12) that fits — showing cleavage is okay, but I don’t want the cups to be spilling over the sides or top. It definitely needs some type of shelf, so I mostly have been looking at bikinis. I’m okay with the answer being underwire and more expensive, but I don’t want it to look like it’s a bra. I feel like most things I’ve seen either are designed to show lots of cleavage or are like a crewneck to hide it, and I want something in the middle — cute but not so sexy that it feels weird to wear around family and friends. I think because of the sizing it also needs to be with explicit cup sizes. Help!
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For sheer variety, and a band- and cup-size range of 28 to 50 and A to O, consider Bare Necessities. I think this fits the bill for no spillage; the U.K. size 36FF is equivalent to the U.S. size 36H.
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When I interviewed Cindy Kahng, owner of the East Village’s Azaleas, she mentioned the store carries a few lines that specialize in cup-size swimsuits. That includesHaight; its Monica bikini top is available in F-, G-, and H-cups.
My question is: Why don’t more women’s swimsuit-makers make swim shorts? And why don’t women demand more of them? Okay, I have three questions. The last one is: Why should women have to shave our most private area so we can display it to strangers? That last one may be out of the scope here, and therefore a rhetorical question, but really the whole reason for my questions.
I’m in front of your soapbox! There’s only so manyPatagonia Baggiesyou can have. But some welcome news: I can’t remember a summer when there were this many women’s swim shorts to choose from. (You also might be interested in our guide toswim shorts with less cheek.)
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The daisy print is straight out of J.Crew’s 1997 catalogue.
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This one is reminiscent of Girlfriend Collective’s colors.
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The founders ofBody Glovewere originally selling wetsuits out of a Redondo Beach surf shop.
I’m not a swimsuit girl and would love ideas for cute board shorts and a rash guard.
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Go full-onBlue Crush / Rip Girlswith Billabong. Cowabunga!
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This pairing has all the joy of an umbrella in Margaritavilla.
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UV Skinz Active Swim Shrug
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“Sex appealandrash guardsmight seem like counterintuitive ideas, but I swear, this one delivers,” according to comedy writerCaroline Goldfarb. I’m imagining it matched with the taffeta-y nylon shorts our writerErin Schwartzlikes for their “elegant narrow hems and seams that sit flat.”
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The print reminds me ofMiami Vice. I know you’re looking for board shorts, but how good are these boy shorts styled with the top?
I haven’t been able to find a one-piece swimsuit that is strong enough to hold up the top half of my body (basically, my boobs, which are big) but also actually fits the rest of my body (which is not big). I need support! While I wish I could just lie around and read a book all day, all summer, I only have one child, which means that I am the one swimming, playing, racing, etc. with him. I would like to do all of those things while not plucking a wedgie out of my butt every two minutes or holding my boobs to my chest with one hand while sprinting across the sand because I refuse to lose a race to a 7-year-old.
There’s nothing like a wedgie to remind you of life’s fragility. I want you to be able to race your 7-year-old carefree. Some mom-approved swimsuits for doing just that:
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This is the one-piece that freed novelist Sarah Blakley-Cartwright from “swimsuit behavior.” It’s a swimsuit that “accepts that its wearer might not just turn a page but lift a 40-pound child, climb ladders at the water park and hurtle down the 70-foot free-fall slide, sprint after that same child who’s now made a break for open water — or just attempt a cartwheel in the sand,” she writes. There’s no supervision required, either, with under-bust elastic, removable cups, and front snap buttons.
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Antiques dealerErica Weinerties the neckline higher when running after her kids. It “acts like athleticwear — no slipping, holds me in, and makes me feel like a MILF,” she says, with the double-layered spandex doing “a bit of a corseting suck-in of the belly and butt.”
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Actress Megan Ferguson hasn’t ever felt so “contained by a single piece of Lycra” as she has inLeft on Friday’s Sunday Suit. Not only is the fabric “imbued with firming forces that challenge my basic understanding of physics,” but the straps are “doing the work of a surgical breast-lift,” she says. We’ve taken to calling it the “High & Tight of one-pieces” since herreview. It’s available in either an A-D cup or a D-G cup.
I have, like, 40 swimsuits and know my stuff but still can’t find a string bikini that isn’t low-rise in the front. I had a C-section, and some of the bottoms are so close to my scar. Not the vibe. Looking for bottoms that are mid-coverage in the back and the front.
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Youswim — which made a name for itself in the“one-size” swimsuit competition— has the Tie Sides Bottom in either I (sizes 2-12) or II (sizes 14-24). You should be able to get more coverage than the average tie-string bikini bottoms, as it’s designed with the brand’s trademarked ultrastretchy Versoform.
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It’s not a tie-string bikini; it’s a knot bikini. (Quite literally a twist on the idea.) WriterBrenley Goertzendescribes it as having “a high-rise, high-leg cut that is so comfortable around the waist (a.k.a. hides bloating after several hard seltzers), making me feel both held in and sexy.”
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I figured I’d mention that senior writer Liza Corsillo (whose C-section scar makes wearing a lot of underwear uncomfortable) prefers a J.CrewPerfect String Bikini Topwith the Hallie Bikini Bottom (rather than theCheeky String Bikini Bottom). “I feel confident walking around in front of friends and family or even bending down to play with my son,” she says.
I am 14 weeks pregnant and planning to spend time on the beach this summer and know that my body will be changing rapidly. I could go with a crinkle suit, but then I’d feel like I’m boxed into one suit for the whole summer due to the cost. What would you recommend?
Congratulations! I can’t say thatHunza Gis a bad idea (Wall Street Journalart editorAlexandra Citrin-Safadiwore thePetralast summer when she was pregnant). But …
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J.Crew’s version ofcrinkleis the scrunchie. No one would guess it’s not a Hunza G poolside.
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Andie The Amalfi One-Piece
Senior writerLauren Rooriginally got the Andie Amalfi in 2018 and wore it for her first and second pregnancies and in the years since.
Is there a high-cut swimsuit (bikini bottoms or one-piece) that offers more than a landing strip? I don’t understand the butt floss. I also don’t want to spend over $100 on a swimsuit.
I couldn’t help thinking aboutCarrie Bradshaw’s accidental Brazilian waxinSex and the Cityhere.
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It’s very Pamela Anderson onBaywatch, admittedly.
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If a scoop of raspberry ice cream and a Creamsicle had a baby …
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Slinky Italian polyamide-spandex.
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