The Swimwear Wardrobe
An edit for swimming, sun, coverage, and the cuts that actually work.
I’ve been a water person for a long time.
I swim. I surf. I love the beach. I spent twelve years in Hawaii, where swimwear stopped being something occasional and became part of an actual wardrobe. It’s stayed that way ever since, for reasons that have nothing to do with glamour: warm water and cold, different days, different levels of coverage, different reasons for being in or near the sea.
What years around water taught me is this: swimwear gets easier when you stop looking for one perfect suit and start building the right range.
Something for actual swimming. Something for lying in the sun. Something that covers more when you want coverage, and something that reveals more when that feels better. Not because one is braver or better than the other, but because bodies, moods, and activities change.
This is a small selection from a much longer swimwear life. The pieces here are the ones that answer most of my current needs: reveal, coverage, everyday, function. Some are exactly right. One is not, and I’ll tell you why.
The point is not to copy my suits. It is to notice which slot in your own swimwear wardrobe is still empty.
The Reveal Question
Some days the goal is simply as little as possible: lounging, sun, no real functional demand beyond feeling good in your body. That is a legitimate swimwear need, not a lesser one, and it deserves its own honest answer.
The cut that answers it is minimal on purpose: a tie-side bottom for flexibility, coverage that reads as a choice rather than a compromise, nothing structural doing the work for you. The best bikini in this category is the one you don’t have to adjust every five minutes. There’s no fixing a bad cut mid-lounge; it has to be right from the start.
One brand gets this cut so reliably right that I’ve stopped looking elsewhere for it. Oséree’s triangle-and-tie-side shape, in their glitter lurex, is the closest thing I have to a uniform for doing nothing: minimal coverage, thin straps, a fabric that looks better in direct sun than it ever does in a product photo. I trust the cut enough that I’m already planning next season’s color.
The Attico I had for a few years answers the same reveal need in a different mood: printed, tiny, thin ties at the hip, a triangle top that means business. Where Oséree is about a brand I trust enough to collect, this one is about the cut being honestly, unapologetically minimal. Comfortable enough for actual sunbathing, not just photos. Fun, in the way the others are more considered.
The Coverage Question
The Jade Swim is a good reminder that covered does not always mean easier.
It is beautifully made, in a metallic golden-beige color that works almost like a neutral, and the high-waisted cut gives you legs for days. I understand the appeal. On paper, this should be the bikini you reach for when you want more coverage.
But I’ve had it for four or five years now, and over time I realized why I don’t reach for it. The briefs sit high on my stomach, and on me, at 53, that is not where I want compression. Not from weight — my skin there just isn’t taut the way it was even five years ago. The waistband cuts into the softness instead of resting against something firm.
That doesn’t make it a bad swimsuit. It makes it the wrong kind of coverage for me now.
If you want coverage, pay attention to where the suit covers you. More fabric is not the same as more ease.
The Everyday Question
Most days are not about revealing or covering. They are about being in the water without adjusting anything, which is the slot most swimwear wardrobes are actually missing. It does not photograph as excitingly as the tiny bikini or the dramatic one-piece, but it is usually the one you need most.