089/ What I'm Wearing: Swimsuit Edition
So many buying mistakes, what I've learned, the suits I've tried on, and the ones that made the cut!
What I’m Wearing is a series where I share all of the outfits I’ve worn over a given week (or two), along with styling notes, links and related thoughts. If you see an outfit you like on my Instagram, you’ll find it here.
This newsletter is Part 2 of what I wore on my recent family vacation to Martinique. ICYMI, you can read Part 1 here.
Ah, swimwear. There’s no category of clothing that I’ve spent wasted more money on. Every season I try on dozens of swimsuits, even buying a few, but quickly realizing — after ripping off the tags — that I’ll never wear them. *face palm*
So. Many. Buying. Mistakes. Year after year.
After 43 years, I’ve finally gotten more analytical about why this keeps happening, and this newsletter is about what I’ve figured out (so far).
In the last two months, I’ve tried on maybe 40 swimsuits, some in-store, others via online orders, and I’ll be sharing the ones that worked for me and why!
Vertical Length
Stumbling upon Left on Friday’s fit page was a eureka moment for me.
We’re used to websites listing and giving instructions on how to take our horizontal measurements, but LOF’s site also includes them for our torsos, i.e. our vertical measurement:
Torso measurement?! You mean, not all one-pieces are the same length? They don’t just magically stretch out to the length that’s right for you?
I dutifully pull out my measuring tape and figure out that my torso is 61” around, putting me in LOF’s TALL swimwear category. I’m 5’6” and have never bought a “tall” swimsuit (or anything else) before.
I’ve known for years that I have a relatively long torso. I know that jumpsuits are tricky for me because of said fact (hello, camel toe). I measure pant rises (another vertical measurement) because they’re so important when buying pants. Yet somehow it took me this long to realize that one’s torso measurement is quantifiable and that it impacts the fit of swimsuits.
Exhibits A & B:
I liked both of the suits below in the changeroom. But how a swimsuit looks in the changeroom while posing and repeatedly picking my wedgie =/= how it will fit after walking, raising my arms, bending over and/or swimming.
You can clearly see in these back shots that the suits are too short for my body by 2-3”. The suits are vertically stretched to the max, and in the case of the suit on the left, the bottom is so far up my ass that I could feel pressure on my pelvis in the front and tailbone in the back. Ouch.