Searching for flattering swimwear in the more modest category can be a little soul-destroying, with many women often compromising between a limited choice of what’s available and what looks the least terrible.
Let’s be honest—pulling on a swimsuit can stir up nerves for any woman, whether she’s 18 or 68… If you’re one of the few women who can face the thought of summers spent baring all in a swimsuit with equanimity, then lucky you! For the rest of us, even thinking of putting on a swimsuit can unleash a flood of vulnerability and low-level anxiety.
I’m a swim and resort wear designer based in the beautiful Cayman Islands where swimwear makes up a necessary part of the day-to-day Island wardrobe, and most women find themselves in a swimsuit at least once a week, all year-round. So, I make it my business to design confidence-boosting swimwear to help my clients feel assured and comfortable.
A core belief that influences my designs is that age is no limit to feeling confident and beautiful and we design for bodies at every life stage. Every woman deserves to embrace her individuality and express her style through her fashion choices.
With this central belief, we regularly conduct surveys of our resort wear clients (average age 48) to understand what they want and need to feel good in their swimsuits. We also want to understand how these women are managing their stress around buying and wearing swimsuits. In our most recent 2025 survey, we asked 100 women, with an average age of 48, about their preferences and behavior around swimwear.
Overall, the most resounding feedback we received from our clients is that they want bathing suits that are stylish, elegant, comfortable, and yes, easy to wear.
Most women recognize, with varying levels of acceptance, that their bodies evolve at every life stage and feel frustrated about being overlooked in the swimwear market. Many of the 100-plus women who completed the survey have developed their personal strategies for identifying and shopping for their ideal swimwear.
We broke down the 5 go-to strategies women use to find their most flattering swimsuit:
Swimsuits With a Unique Style
Interestingly, the most emphatic response was a desire for unique styles that wholeheartedly celebrate individuality and exude an air of sophistication. Respondents said they often find that many of the swimwear options aimed at them—especially those labeled “40-plus”—feel a little staid.
One respondent revealed; “I may no longer have the body I had in my 20s, but I still want to wear a swimsuit that I consider interesting".
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Styling Note: You can bring that unique style, even to the most basic of classic swimsuits, by choosing vibrant prints and patterns that give the swimsuit a sense of your personality. When choosing a pattern, focus more on abstract and floral prints which can help weave visual magic that diverts attention from any areas you may feel less confident about. |
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Insider tip: Geometric prints don’t have quite the same magic on swimsuits, and they can be less flattering to curves. |
Swimsuits that visually slim
In the main, our respondents say that the older they get, the closer they are to reaching a level of acceptance of their bodies. However, that being said, many of the women in our survey believed that their most flattering swimwear provides them with a form of slimming, contouring, or body shaping.
Another of our survey respondents said, “I gravitate towards swimwear that has some design element that can help to balance my shape. Is that vain?” We say no, it's not vain! We’re huge fans of anything that helps you look and feel your best, especially when you’re practically naked!
These swimwear styles might employ clever construction techniques such as boning and underwire, or use ruching, color blocking, and strategically placed paneling to visually slim, direct the eye, and accentuate your best features.
So how might each of these slimming elements help?
Ruching
Let's start with ruching—a tried and true favorite of fashion experts and stylists. Ruching along the sides or front of a swimsuit can cleverly conceal any concerns around the tummy area.
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Cons: You can indeed have too much of a good thing. The amount of ruching must be just right to avoid adding the extra visual weight of too much fabric. If it looks like it's too much, then it's too much! |
Boning and Underwire
Boning and underwire help by lifting and securing your bust to give you a cleaner, leaner silhouette. Another wonderful consequence is that when your bust is lifted to its rightful place, it can visually make your waist look smaller for more of that classic hourglass figure.
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Cons: Some clients say they've found boning and underwire to be uncomfortable for all-day wear. |
Color Blocks and Panels
By skillfully combining contrasting colors in strategic areas of a swimsuit, color blocking can provide visual contouring and streamlining.
Strategically placed paneling can also help to give a sleeker appearance. By incorporating panels at the sides, these swimsuits effortlessly create the illusion of a narrower torso and waist. This type of paneling placement can also visually elongate your body, creating the illusion of a longer leaner torso.
Shaping Technology
Take your swimsuit game to the next level with a swimsuit that incorporates shaping technology including tummy control panels or power mesh lining. These additions offer exceptional support and contouring, smoothing out curves and creating a more streamlined silhouette.
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Cons: Try these on to establish what level of shaping is comfortable for you. Some clients reported that the shaping can cause the suit to feel as constricting as a corset the longer you wear it. |
Swimsuits That Support
The significance of the right support in a swimsuit cannot be emphasized enough especially when it increases your confidence. There’s an almost mystical change that happens when you know your clothing can provide you with the support you need! In this case, I'm referring particularly to bust support.
Some of the best ways to give yourself sufficient support in the bust area will be to look for features like built-in bras, underwire and boning, and/or adjustable bra straps. Celebrity stylist Sarah Shirley highlights this imperative in her Forbes article titled "The Swimwear Trends That Will Make You Feel Body-Confident This Summer. She extolls the transformative power of well-constructed swimsuits with built-in bras or underwire; they excel in providing superior support for the bust area and can ultimately enhance both your comfort and confidence.
Additionally, for women blessed with a more generous decolletage, swimsuits with wider straps can help distribute the weight of the uplifted bust more evenly, alleviating strain on your shoulders and neck. Wider straps act as your secret swimsuit allies, offering a supplement to help keep you comfortable even during prolonged periods of wear.
Swimsuits with a bit more coverage
Despite the current trend for razor wire-thin, g-string style bum coverage, bare it all cut-outs, and swimwear so small it could get lost in your wallet, the women we surveyed overwhelmingly voted in favor of greater coverage both for their peace of mind and boosting their confidence levels.
Fuller bum coverage can have the added benefit of more “lift” for your derrière. For an additional leg-lengthening confidence boost (and who doesn't want that?), combine a higher-cut leg with full or moderate bottom coverage to make your legs look longer.
According to the style mavens at Vogue magazine, Classic One-piece swimsuits offer more moderate coverage and never go out of style. I also happen to love elegant simplicity and the classic one-piece swimsuit is the streamlined epitome of that.
If bikinis are more your style, fear not! Tasteful two-piece swimsuits with higher-waisted bottoms and supportive tops can also offer a flattering balance of coverage and sophistication. Glamour magazine suggests that high-waist bottoms combine the sexiness of a bikini with the coverage of a full bathing suit, making them a must-have for a day on the beach or around the pool.
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Styling note: Extreme high waist bikinis look best on a somewhat longer torso. For those less endowed with length in their torso, a great compromise is a high waist bikini bottom that hits just a little below your belly button. |
Swimsuits for a variety of body lengths
Some of our clients with longer torsos expressed their frustration when it comes to finding a one-piece swimsuit that offers the right fit and length. It can be extremely uncomfortable to wear a one-piece swimsuit that’s short in the body. They felt limited to two-piece bathing suits to accompany their length.
One solution offered by Fashion editor Abby Hepworth of PureWow is finding swimsuits specifically designed with longer torso options from brands like summersalt.com, Andieswim.com, leftonFriday.com, or longtallsally.com, who offer all their swimsuits styles with a longer torso option.
Further insight from veteran swimwear designer Melissa Odabash suggests that a swimsuit with adjustable straps is also a simple solution if only a little extra length is needed. In her words, swimsuits with adjustable straps have the remarkable ability to offer a customized fit and can cater to diverse body types while ensuring maximum support and comfort.
Finding Self-Confidence in Your Most Flattering Swimwear Ever
The secret to minimizing the anxiety around bathing-suit season comes from finding the style that makes you feel most like your best self today and for the body you’re alive in today. Be brave, you can choose to ignore the dictates of fashion and the fickleness of changing trends and choose to wear what feels best to you and what flatters you the most.
What might that look like? According to the wise women we surveyed, the most flattering swimsuits for any woman will have a great fit that provides you with enough support where you want it. They will feel comfortable to wear and preferably have some element of uniqueness that allows your personality to shine through. The final ingredient in the secret sauce for your most flattering is confidence and a radiantly happy smile that comes from knowing you look your absolute best.