Q&A: Modest Swimwear

Hello, dear readers! Welcome to our first question and answer feature on the blog! Today's question comes from Hollis, and it is about how to find modest swimwear:

Question:With the hot summer weather coming, I'd love to see a modesty post about swimming/swimwear! New York doesn't have the same kind of scene, but here in the suburban south I'm at the pool with my kid almost every day all summer long and I feel uncomfortably naked in a bathing suit. If I want to swim, I go at a lower traffic time and get in and do my workout and get out. It's the lounging that's weird. As I'm sure you can guess, this is both a pragmatic fashion question and a larger question about modesty and exposure. I wear a long sleeve rashguard over my suit, primarily to protect me from the sun but I like the coverage too. But I'm still so uncovered everywhere else. Do you have any suggestions? -- Hollis

Answer:Ah yes. As the weather warms up, the swimwear question always comes with it. Swimwear is a source of anxiety for many women, modestly inclined or not. I'm not going to deal with the body image piece here today; we will leave that for another time. However, I will cite my friend Amy's wisdom: You know you get a bikini-ready body in one quick step? Step one: Put on a bikini. True story, Amy.

Anyway. For those of use for whom modesty is an issue, however, swimwear is complicated beyond just body image. There are a few ways to go, in my experience.

Option #1: Just wear a bathing suit. A good number of my friends end up suspending modesty parameters when they are at the beach, under the assumption that that is actually the normal mode of dress there, and also that nobody is looking. It is also true that a one piece/ skirted bathing suit/ long tankini (God bless whoever invented the tankini, making it easier for us to go to the bathroom without taking off all of our clothes) is often much more modest than the string bikinis many people wear. If this option works for you, I have had great success with Lands End bathing suits for providing a little more coverage. (And they seem to be having a sale until tomorrow, if you're in the market.)

Option #2: Modest swimwear. I don't have a lot of experience in this area, but I have friends who have bought bathing outfits through companies like Hydrochic and Modli. The nice thing about these companies is they tend to offer a range of styles depending on your standards of modesty, including skirt options, for those whom that is a requirement. They also sell water-friendly hair coverings. I've never gone this route, partly because I don't spend enough time at the pool to justify the expense and partly because I'm fairly certain I would drown if I tried to wear a swimming skirt. But for people for whom maintaining the same standards of modesty at the beach as they do in day-to-day life is a requirement, this is definitely good to know about.

Option #3: This is sort of a middle ground, and where I hang out. I usually wear a normal swimsuit under a t-shirt/ rashguard and men's board shorts. (See the picture above, from a delightful week at the Jersey shore last summer.) I don't wear shorts in normal life, but I've found that many men's bathing suits provide me with the level of coverage I feel comfortable in at the beach. The nice thing about them is that they are meant to be used for swimming, so they don't weigh you down the way a bathing outfit might, but they still provide a lot of coverage, which is useful for both maintaining modesty and sun protection. It's not necessary to spend a lot of money on them-- mine come from Old Navy and Target-- and they could theoretically be worn without a bathing suit underneath, although I've never done so. Look for a board short that has a 10 inch inseam or longer. Also, remember that men's clothing are not cut for hips, so I often end up going up one size so that I don't feel like my legs are sausages. You'll still be more covered than basically every woman you see, but long shorts and a t-shirt are much less conspicuous, if that's a factor for you. (In a pinch, basketball shorts work as well, but they can fall down if you're in rough water.)

So those are my thoughts on swimwear. Hope that helped! Certainly, this is one of the more complicated areas of modesty, so it's important to figure out what's right for you, rather than worrying about what other people are doing. And no matter what, remember to wear sunscreen! (Especially if you're exposing parts of your skin that are usually covered. That's a lobster waiting to happen.) Happy swimming everyone!

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