For most women, shopping for a bathing suit is not on top of the list of favorite tasks. They have to deal with unflattering lights, flashes of skin left dull and dry by the winter and sizing that seems to make no sense, bringing up all sorts of body-image issues.
The least swimsuit manufacturers can do is offer a full range of shapes and styles, upping the odds that eventually shoppers will find the best one, right?
Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss thought so. As a petite but busty ’tween and then teen, Mrs. Gruss struggled finding a suit that would fit her. It was a source of frustration and embarrassment. When she chose a career in fashion design, she made rethinking bathing suits a priority.
“It didn’t make sense that swimsuits were in sets. You wouldn’t buy your lingerie in sets,” she says.
On a recent browsing expedition through the swimwear department at the flagship Bloomingdale’s on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Mrs. Gruss points out that many companies have begun offering bathing suit separates and tops based on bust size, as her line does, instead of dress size.
She’s not claiming to be the first designer to do these things, but she does think the rapid growth of her swimwear collection since it was introduced in 2001 helped nudge the industry forward. She began with just a handful of bikini styles and has seen her line grow to include 40 prints each season, tankinis and one-piece suits, which she added after she became a mother in 2005.
Mrs. Gruss thinks she owes her success not only to understanding her customers but to being her own customer.
“I remember being here with my mom. I looked 29 when I’d put on a bathing suit because the styles that fit me were either too old, too sexy or nothing fit. That was the worst feeling in the world when you’re 13,” she recalls.
Because she was athletic and wanted to be able to move around without worrying about falling out of her bathing suit, she often resorted to a big baggy sweatshirt as a coverup that rarely came off. Again, not a look coveted by teens.
Mrs. Gruss went on to the University of California at Los Angeles — bathing-suit country — and earned degrees in history and art history. After that, she went to work at a lingerie factory to learn about fabric, construction and design. Her personal experience with a hard-to-fit figure has influenced everything she has done since starting the Shoshanna label in 1998.
She first produced sundresses because they were easier to market. In 2001, when she introduced swimwear, it was a personally important moment. Then, following the birth of her daughter with husband Josh Gruss, she added children’s swimwear under the label Shoshanna BabyGirl.
Now that she’s 31, Mrs. Gruss is looking for something different from her bathing suits than she did in her sexier single days. She’s still trim and petite — and she’s still busty — but now she needs to be able carry around her daughter, build sand castles and even dive into the water on little Sienna’s command. However, she doesn’t want to sacrifice style.
The Bloomingdale’s tour starts in her own section. Mrs. Gruss emphasizes that her tops, both for one-piece and two-piece suits, are offered with A to DDD cup sizes and in either petite/small or medium/large back widths, similar to bras. (The line is primarily intended for women who wear a dress size of 0 to 12.)
By using an underwire bra construction with 26 components, including boning on the sides, silicone gripper tape at the top and a classic hook-and-eye closure in the back, Mrs. Gruss is confident her strapless tops will stay up on women of all bust sizes. They won’t flatten a large chest or slip down on a small one, she says.
For trying on suits, she advises: Stand up, sit down and move your arms to make sure the suit fits. “If you think you might fall out in the dressing room, it’s definitely not a suit for racing or swimming laps,” she says.
Mrs. Gruss thinks a teenager might gravitate toward a halter top, perhaps in eyelet or a madras print, because that silhouette offers the most coverage if she chooses to play a little beach volleyball or swim.
Conversely, the coverage from a halter also might appeal to an older woman who isn’t interested in baring as much as she used to expose.
That doesn’t mean this woman isn’t sexy, Mrs. Gruss says. She says a halter-style one-piece, especially one with ruching and boning — both tools to give support and flatter one’s figure — conjures up images of Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s.
A triangle top, especially as part of a string bikini, defines your shape for you, Mrs. Gruss says, so it works well on a woman who feels her breasts are of unequal size. Also, she adds, because it’s often adjustable at the neck, it’s appealing for someone looking for a little lift.
In general, suits with higher backs have more support, and crisscross straps are sturdier than tank straps.
The tankini is a phenomenon Mrs. Gruss doesn’t quite get. She sees the appeal of a sportier style, but it often comes off as a little matronly, she says. If you’re going to wear one, make sure the top meets or covers the bottom and try a youthful, trendy, baby-doll style, she advises.
Mrs. Gruss identifies other key looks for the summer of 2007: geometric or nautical prints that have a 1970s’ jet-set vibe; the sweet sexiness of a full-coverage, Brigitte Bardot-style bikini in a gingham or eyelet fabric; or metallics. Gold, she says, is flattering on almost any skin tone.
“Swim is always all over the place, but this year is very feminine, very celebratory of the body,” Mrs. Gruss says.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.