War of the swimsuit
Oct. 20th, 2010 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sienamysticI've been looking online for a reasonably-priced, one piece swimsuit in my size. While that looks like a simple proposition, it's proven to be surprisingly difficult. I started my search on Ebay, where the majority of the suits are either buy-me-nows at sixty to seventy dollars, but you can find the occasional used one for cheap. The problem is that I'm still a little squeamish about a used suit. When they looked like they weren't too dingy, I placed a bid, but I haven't been aggressive enough, and lost them to others.
So I started looking elsewhere - Land's End, Speedo, Amazon, a few websites that claim to carry plus-size swimsuits. I started running into a few problems consistently. First of all, many of the suits were designed to look cute by the side of the pool, but wouldn't be good to swim laps in. I wanted a simple tank suit with something like a racer back, or cross-straps, or just tank straps that wouldn't roll or slide. I didn't want something bedazzled, with belts, skirts, or ruched to add festivity across my boobs. Plus, I didn't want some of the eye-bleeding prints that are apparently quite fashionable at the moment. I was hoping for maybe one or two colors, maybe some simple color blocking. This consistently narrowed down my choices to a handful of suits, which, judging by the comments on them, were favored by women in their sixties who did water aerobics. But ok.
From here, price seemed to be a big problem. The Land's End's cheapest suit had terrible ratings for fit. Their pricier suit was just under fifty bucks - a little pricy for what I wanted, but I was willing to pay for it, until I read comment after comment from people who swim daily, and found that not only did the suit fade drastically in a very short time, but that they needed to buy new suits after about three months. Seriously? Three months? I mean, I'm not going to be swimming daily, but that seems like a really short lifespan for a suit. Every other suit I found seemed to be in the mid sixties to high seventies, and on up - more than I wanted to pay, but I may be forced to it in the end.
The next problem was size. I seem to have put myself into a weird category where I'm neither flesh nor fowl, and what will probably need to happen is that I'll have to take my measurements to settle the issue. Am I an 18 in misses? A 16 in womans? A 16 in misses? On some websites I seem to not be considered plus-size anymore, and in other places the difference between a regular 16 and a plus-size 16 seem to vary quite a bit. And am I a 40 or 42 in a Speedo, except when they switch to another measuring system that might be a dress size but then again maybe not? What about the different measurements Land's End uses when you designate yourself a "D Cup" person? After a certain point, I was completely confused about what size I actually needed. And when I went to a sporting goods store to try on a few of their store brand, I seemed to be somewhere between a 14, which fit but was snug, and a 16, that mostly fit but was weirdly baggy in the torso.
So, I have purchased no suit yet. I may just have to suck it up and pay more than I was hoping to. And I'm going to have to take good measurements before I do anything. Plus, it would be nice to drop ten more pounds (I've plateaued again) and become a more certain 14. Part of the reason I'm so dissatisfied with what I'm finding is that I'm chasing a swimsuit I used to own, way, way back in the day. It was a black Body Glove suit, with a racing back, very ordinary except perhaps for a slightly high cut on the legs. I loved that suit. I had my very own wind machine when I strutted around with that suit on. It made me feel like a badass.
Sadly, that was many years and many pounds ago. I should go check and see if Body Glove even exists still. I might be able to talk myself into a pricy suit if it still taps into that place in the back of my brain when I ruled the pool.
ETA: Body Glove still exists, but I may have to drop that ten pounds before I can fit into their largest suit. I also just looked at Title Nine, which is probably ditto, but also had some cute suits I rather liked.
So I started looking elsewhere - Land's End, Speedo, Amazon, a few websites that claim to carry plus-size swimsuits. I started running into a few problems consistently. First of all, many of the suits were designed to look cute by the side of the pool, but wouldn't be good to swim laps in. I wanted a simple tank suit with something like a racer back, or cross-straps, or just tank straps that wouldn't roll or slide. I didn't want something bedazzled, with belts, skirts, or ruched to add festivity across my boobs. Plus, I didn't want some of the eye-bleeding prints that are apparently quite fashionable at the moment. I was hoping for maybe one or two colors, maybe some simple color blocking. This consistently narrowed down my choices to a handful of suits, which, judging by the comments on them, were favored by women in their sixties who did water aerobics. But ok.
From here, price seemed to be a big problem. The Land's End's cheapest suit had terrible ratings for fit. Their pricier suit was just under fifty bucks - a little pricy for what I wanted, but I was willing to pay for it, until I read comment after comment from people who swim daily, and found that not only did the suit fade drastically in a very short time, but that they needed to buy new suits after about three months. Seriously? Three months? I mean, I'm not going to be swimming daily, but that seems like a really short lifespan for a suit. Every other suit I found seemed to be in the mid sixties to high seventies, and on up - more than I wanted to pay, but I may be forced to it in the end.
The next problem was size. I seem to have put myself into a weird category where I'm neither flesh nor fowl, and what will probably need to happen is that I'll have to take my measurements to settle the issue. Am I an 18 in misses? A 16 in womans? A 16 in misses? On some websites I seem to not be considered plus-size anymore, and in other places the difference between a regular 16 and a plus-size 16 seem to vary quite a bit. And am I a 40 or 42 in a Speedo, except when they switch to another measuring system that might be a dress size but then again maybe not? What about the different measurements Land's End uses when you designate yourself a "D Cup" person? After a certain point, I was completely confused about what size I actually needed. And when I went to a sporting goods store to try on a few of their store brand, I seemed to be somewhere between a 14, which fit but was snug, and a 16, that mostly fit but was weirdly baggy in the torso.
So, I have purchased no suit yet. I may just have to suck it up and pay more than I was hoping to. And I'm going to have to take good measurements before I do anything. Plus, it would be nice to drop ten more pounds (I've plateaued again) and become a more certain 14. Part of the reason I'm so dissatisfied with what I'm finding is that I'm chasing a swimsuit I used to own, way, way back in the day. It was a black Body Glove suit, with a racing back, very ordinary except perhaps for a slightly high cut on the legs. I loved that suit. I had my very own wind machine when I strutted around with that suit on. It made me feel like a badass.
Sadly, that was many years and many pounds ago. I should go check and see if Body Glove even exists still. I might be able to talk myself into a pricy suit if it still taps into that place in the back of my brain when I ruled the pool.
ETA: Body Glove still exists, but I may have to drop that ten pounds before I can fit into their largest suit. I also just looked at Title Nine, which is probably ditto, but also had some cute suits I rather liked.
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-21 01:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-23 04:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-21 02:04 pm (UTC)I can report, however, that Land's End does have really good two-pieces "tankinis" (stupid word) where the tank part of the top does not get in the way of movement. I bought one at the outlet store in Madison, WI a couple of years ago, and found that miracle of swimsuits, a built-in underwire for less than $50!
(The D-cup at Land's End did match my D-cup, although generally Land's End sticks to the old-skool concept of measurement, so I usually end up a size smaller there than anywhere else. In their turtlenecks, I'm an XS! Which I am nowhere else on the planet.)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-23 04:24 pm (UTC)And yeah, it's true what you say about Speedos - they really do fall into a separate category.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-22 03:12 am (UTC)Do check Title 9, though - I've heard that they've just started carrying larger bra sizes, so maybe that translates into a wider range of swimsuits as well.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-23 04:31 pm (UTC)