Do women over 50 look better in a string bikini or big pants 2-piece? They’re the two big trends of the summer but, says SHANE WATSON, you’ll be very surprised at which style is most flattering
One day we may get through a summer without a ‘Should Women Over 50 Wear A Bikini’ debate — but that time has not yet come.
If anything, this is the summer of reviving old questions we thought we’d dealt with years ago: namely, Should Women Over 50 Wear a String Bikini?
The 1990s Burberry check string bikini is back, and the string bikini (with bottoms that tie at the sides with fabric no more substantial than string, in case you need reminding) is having a revival on the catwalk and among women who wore them 30 years ago.
Davina McCall, 55, and Demi Moore, 60, have both recently been pictured wearing string ones, and the queen of bikinis, Elizabeth Hurley, turned 58 last month and celebrated with — what else — a selfie of her on a beach in a bright blue string bikini.
Hurley has her own swimwear company, so posing in the Caribbean shallows, arms aloft in an itsy bitsy bikini is all part of the job.
Davina McCall (pictured), 55, and Demi Moore, 60, have both recently been pictured wearing string ones, and the queen of bikinis, Elizabeth Hurley, turned 58 last month and celebrated with — what else — a selfie of her on a beach in a bright blue string bikini
Demi Moore (pictured above) was pictured recently sporting her usual string bikini look
Yet she could have celebrated her birthday in a standard bikini with bottoms that had actual sides, or a Fifties-style bikini with tummy button-concealing pants — this summer’s other hot beachwear style.
But instead, two years shy of her 60th, Liz chose a string bikini. The starter bikini. The junior miss of bikinis.
The bikini intended for coltish teenagers and young women who need zero support and virtually zero coverage and who, therefore, find two triangles loosely tied at the sides, and a top like a section of bunting, perfectly sufficient.
Of all the bikinis this one says ‘youth’ more than any other, and yet women old enough to be grannies are wearing it for the second time around.
So, should you, would you, wear a string bikini? And why would you not choose a lovely big-knickered two-piece instead?
First things first: you don’t have to be 20 to wear a string bikini, though you need a flat stomach and not much in the way of flesh.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell (pictured), 53, has the perfect toned figure for her tiny bikini
Elizabeth Hurley (pictured) has her own swimwear company, so posing in the Caribbean shallows, arms aloft in an itsy bitsy bikini is all part of the job
Ella Macpherson showed off her string bikini, like Liz Hurley, wearing tiny bottoms
Salma Hayek, 56, was pictured in a colourful string bikini with playful details
This is not about judging, it’s common sense. I gave up wearing string bikinis the day I realised that unless I was fully stretched out, the ties were buried in my hip flesh.
String bikinis are for the very slim, and, yes, you can be very slim at any age.
You may even look OK in one in your sixth decade. But you still might choose not to wear one because of something that happens to women post-50 (or earlier): The Feel Naked Feeling.
If you haven’t experienced this, it’s not unlike the sensation you get after a radical haircut, when all of a sudden you feel weirdly exposed and vulnerable.
The Feel Naked Feeling hits you out of the blue. One summer you’re happily slipping on a fairly small bikini, the next you can’t stop tugging it up at the front, pulling it down at the back and reaching for a cover-up whenever you walk around.
Has your bum got bigger? No. You’ve got warier and more self-conscious.
It’s the same instinct that will prevent you from buying a pair of very low-rise jeans; you no longer want to show as much skin as you used to, and you feel safer, more comfortable and nicer-looking with a little bit more coverage.
Precisely how much coverage is the difference between successful midlife bikini-wearing and not so successful at all.
The obvious option for bikini wearers running from the Feel Naked Feeling is the big knicker bikini (BKB).
You would have thought this was precisely the style a grown-up should graduate to — corseting bottoms with a more substantial bra to match.
BKB wearers argue that with your tummy tucked away and pulled in and your bikini bottoms cutting off at the smallest part of your waist, this is the most flattering style. But I beg to differ.
From the back you’re all bottom in a BKB, and all hips and tummy from the front. To look your best you need the willowy silhouette of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley or Georgia May Jagger, who models the latest iteration of the Burberry string bikini.
You also need skinny ribs. Even worse than the packed-in ‘solid bottom’ effect, is the gap between the BKB knickers and bra.
This draws the eye directly to that soft fleshy area under the ribs that’s liable to bulge and let you down.
If you have a lovely figure, you may feel like Marilyn Monroe in a big bikini, but you might also just feel frumpy, for the same reason you would wearing a swimming costume with a little skirt.
The whole point of sticking with a bikini, and not packing it away and finding yourself a one-piece, is because bikinis make you feel youthful and free, not swaddled.
From the back you’re all bottom in a BKB, and all hips and tummy from the front. To look your best you need the willowy silhouette of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (pictured) or Georgia May Jagger, who models the latest iteration of the Burberry string bikini
Demi Moore swapped her usual string bikini for one in the big pants style
Jennifer Lopez (pictured) showed off her figure in a high-waisted leopard print two-piece
A BKB sounds like a good idea — More coverage! More control! – but, for me, it is practically a one-piece bar an unflattering sliver of rib and with none of the advantages.
If you want to keep wearing a bikini into your Nancy ‘Lady McCartney’ Shevell years, subtle coverage is the answer.
Go for slightly bigger bikinis with useful concealing tricks like wider ties and ruching and fold-down bottoms.
Thicker tie-side bikinis allow you to drape a few inches of fabric (not string) over that awkward spot where leg meets hip, and a bigger elasticated bikini bottom that you can fold down is the answer to every older wearer’s tum-and-bum worries.
You can adjust the bottoms to your perfect depth, and the folded-over top softens and disguises, the same way ruching does on a swimsuit.
Don’t go too high-legged — or too low — and you’ll be in bikini-wearing business for as long as you like.
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