Find the Perfect Swimsuit Top for your Bust

Susan is a blogger for Beauty and the Beach, a swimwear and fashion blog by InStyleSwimwear.com.  For more swimsuit style tips, trend reports and more, check them out today!

Let’s face it—no two women are shaped exactly the same, and some of us need more or less support than others when it comes to the girls! While shopping for a new swimsuit, one of the biggest problems women run into is finding a top that fits and flatters their figure.  The key is to know which swimsuit tops to look for, based on your bust size. After reading this mini style guide, you’ll be well on your way to looking absolutely fab this season!

Small Bust

Women with small bust sizes are often very self-conscious when swimsuit season comes around.  The key is to find styles that enhance your bustline. In terms of silhouette, triangle tops and bandeaus with either a twist design or sweetheart neckline are your best bet.

Look for these swimsuit tops with specially designed push-up padding (which will help enhance and boost you up) or molded cups (which will help create a curvier shape for your bust). 

Finally, embellishments and texture are your best friends! Look for triangle or bandeau swimsuit styles with fringe, tiered ruffle detail or beading such as Playful Promises Hummingbird Triangle Bra or Valencia by PilyQ.

Medium Bust

Ladies with medium bust sizes are the lucky ones! Depending on your particular bust size and shape, you can pretty much wear any style of swimsuit top you’d like, including halters, triangle tops, bra tops and bandeau tops! 

Ask yourself what you’re looking for. If you want to make your bust appear bigger, look for swimsuit tops with embellishments, push-up padding, molded cups or even bold prints.

But if you want to make your bust appear smaller, look for swimsuit tops that will offer more coverage and create a minimizing effect, such as plain bandeaus that go straight across or dark solid-colored halters. Playful Promises Future Tribal Embroidery Bandeau bra or Indian Summer by L*SPACE are perfect for this.

Large Bust

Finally, if you’re well-endowed up top, then you’ll most likely need swimsuit tops that offer better support. Any top that has underwire cups will be the most supportive for the girls. Similarly, halters with thicker fixed underbands or those featuring double-string underbands can be ultra-supportive.

But if you hate tan lines on your chest, bandeaus are not out of the question! Certain bandeau swimsuit tops have center v-neck halter designs which can be easily untied when you’re laying out. In addition, most traditional bandeau tops come with one or two optional neck straps that can be easily removed for your tanning pleasure!

For more support, go for styles like Playful Promises Garden Party underwire bra or Tricolore Blue by Gottex Profile.

Now that you know what swimsuit tops to look for, you’re one step closer to finding your perfect swim style! Happy shopping!

Love Bomb: Paolita

Paolita modelled by Miranda Barrie and Jess Abidde. Photo by Anna Swiczeniuk, MUA by Cheyenne Raymond.

As the winter drags on and it seems to get colder rather than warmer, I find myself constantly thinking about warm beaches and palm trees. Unfortunately the closest I am to such climates is our office heater, grateful as I am for it! Luckily, all I have to do is look at Paolita’s colourful swimwear to be transported to more exotic locales.

Founded in London in 2010, Paolita are relatively new, but this hasn’t stopped their snowballing popularity as their designs are snapped up worldwide! Their collection features beautiful mix and match bikinis, delicious swimsuits and lace hoodies, perfect for staying glamorous around the pool. The designs focus  on making women feel comfortable yet sexy when at their most exposed, using shapes to complement the figure.

Paolita is vibrant and exotic, just like the founder, Anna Paola. Using Spanish and French fabrics, Anna weaves her cultural and historical passions into each garment, resulting in swimwear with a unique vintage undertone.

Carmen Miranda Violet swimsuit

Arriving in the Paolita shop soon is this gorgeous vintage-inspired swimsuit. The coloured stripes give this a distinctly nautical feel and the shape is so perfect I could imagine it even being worn far, far away from the beach as outerwear!

B Queenie Bikini 

Another really beautiful nautical set, as you can see, I quite like nautical inspired swimwear!

Paolita are giving away 3 luscious prizes, which you can be in with the chance of winning by emailing lovebomb@paolita.co.uk with your first and last name AND liking their facebook. The first prize is the chance to come to their London boutique and pick out an item from the new, not-yet-for-sale collection (don't worry, they can also ship worldwide)! The second and third prizes are a lace hoodie in blush or baby blue!

Sizzling swimwear: How to stay on trend this Summer

If you really think about it, Summer is just around the corner. No really, we are already in January, we got the hardest part over with and now we just have to gradually peel off our layers and cardigans for the next few months. Magazine’s have already started telling you what to cut out in order to get that “Beach Body” (we like you just as you are, thank you very much) and new swimwear is all the rage.

So what kind of prints and colours will you find gracing the shelves this summer?

Swimwear often mirrors current trends in fashion and lingerie, so it’s no wonder that bikini waists are high and prints are inspired by retro classics to coincide with the vintage trend. Embracing curves is one major theme of retro inspired swimwear; details such as cinched waists and fuller cupped tops are being mixed with modern pieces.

Ruffles, too, have found themselves adorning bikinis across the catwalks in another body-shaping trend. Frills and ruffles can add volume where you may be slightly lacking, perfect for balancing out the figure and sticking two fingers up to that diet book.

It’s all about getting you in the mood for a laze around on the beach or by the pool, so bright colours are a constant never-changing trend in swimwear. Designers cannot be as experimental with swimwear as they can lingerie or clothing; therefore the unique detail is often in the print!

And boy, are prints looking bold thanks to digital printing. The wonders of technology are allowing designers to update their printing methods, giving more freedom of detail and colour.

If there is one thing that causes swimwear to sell like hotcakes, it’s the promise of warm sands and tropical climates, so it’s no wonder that designers are channelling this straight into their prints. Sumptuous colours, exotic plants and parrots are everywhere, and we just love it. Our Digital Print Hummingbird bikini rides this trend without being cliché, using bright blues, purples, oranges and greens to inject that exotic look.

Walking hand-in-hand (preferably in the shade of palm trees) with the tropical trend are bold prints, inspired by various cultures and their traditional techniques, particularly those of tribal Africa and Native America. Digital printing is again a catalyst for this trend, but we also see designers using more traditional methods such as embroidery and crochet. We, too, were inspired by far-off lands for our Future Tribal Embroidery bikini, which contrasts a black bandeau bra and side-tie briefs with neon-bright ethnic embroidery.

The Colour Purple

As the leaves turn orange and brown, the sky turns to grey we seek a little colour in our autumn winter wardrobe. And we have just the colour for this sombre autumn which is looking to be upon us pretty soon according to British weather forecasters.

Moving away from the usual black and red lingerie colours, purple has invaded design boards and has become an important trend in the lingerie dye pots for the next few seasons. Various tones of purple have all been used to create unique colour-ways, from mauve to violet to lavender.

Deep purples in lingerie will still ooze seduction that a red or black ensemble may give out, but mauve has something a little more enticing and interesting that is still sexy but also wearable by day and night.

The colour purple denotes wealth and noblesse, a majestic and royal colour. It was a difficult pigment to achieve and therefore rarely used on everyday fabrics.  Today, as the dying process has been perfected, it is still a majestic and rich colour but is appealing to lingerie designers as it can be very feminine in the right shades and also flattering.

Deep purple lingerie is subtle and elegant and has brought a contemporary colour to traditional designs. Playful Promises have made full use of the purple design brief by including a mauve Genie set with triangle soft-cup bra, non-padded bra and brief with gathered detail on the back. This set works well on pale and tanned skin tones.

We have also included a mauve, peach and pink printed range. Etti has a beautiful floral print inspired by the latest colour trends and has the added satin fabric to add a real majestic opulence to the sets.  Emma, our designer, has framed the purple floral print with satin black straps and black mesh inserts. This has added a retro design element to the feminine cut pieces, but as a set they are highly contemporary designs that have proved very popular.

This season’s swimwear has seen a small injection of mauve bikinis and swimsuits, however it is next season’s autumn winter lingerie that will see the largest use of deep purple tones. This promises a lighter purple colour for spring summer 2012, the use of lilacs will again be vastly popular in lingerie. We have a little treat in store for next season’s swimwear but check out our Exotic Charmer bikini set or Swimsuit for a bold injection of purple in your swimwear this summer.