Any kind of woman bigger than a 10 understands the discomfort of finding a swimsuit…
With summer drawing near, three plus-size women are out to prove that, no matter your size, rocking a bikini is never ‘the end of the world.’
In a new video from Strut, three plus-size women reveal how they came to embrace their curves, even during swimsuit season – one of the trickiest times of the year on everyone’s fashion calendar.
Natalie, Simone, and Anna all share their body-positive views and open up about the secrets to their truly inspiring confidence.
Pretty in pink! Anna notes that it was only in the last ‘three or four years’ that swimwear designers began making suits cut for plus-size women
Vibrant! For Simone, it’s critical to find a bathing suit that reflects her ‘colorful personality’ which can be difficult when many plus-size styles are drab, monochrome colors
Update! Though Natalie says she once opted for styles that looked like something her aunt would wear, she realized she has the right to rock a bikini like anyone else
Natalie, a long-haired brunette, opts for a black two-piece with floral detailing. She didn’t always swing towards such trendy styles, though. Natalie admits that, until recently, her swimsuit styles looked like ‘the same things my aunts would wear. Things with skirts on the bottom.’
Then, Natalie says, she had a revelation: ‘About three or four years ago, I really wanted to start pushing myself outside of the boundary of having to cover up. I was like, “What would happen if I wore a cute swimsuit?”‘
Simone, the second woman interviewed, flaunts her curves in a colorful bikini top with cut-outs, and a peach-colored skirt. She says the most important – yet difficult – thing for her is finding swimwear that shows off her colorful personality while still giving her the support her curves need.
She describes her quest to find the perfect bathing suit as ‘tumultuous’ and says she struggled to ‘find anything that fit me well and held me up and supported me so that if I got in the water and freakin’ cannonballed into the water, I would still be OK.’
Simone continues, ‘I’m a very colorful, vibrant person, so when I have something that’s like reflective of me and just my personality, it makes me want to wear it even more.’
Support system: Simone looks for suits that will offer her full figure support so that she can have as much fun in the sun as her heart desires
A revelation: Natalie never thought she would see they day when she wore a bikini, but was thrilled to find the ‘world didn’t end’ when she finally did
Having fun: Anna says she likes to customize her swimwear to truly make it her own
Finally, the video turns to Anna, a blonde woman in a bedazzled pink two-piece. Similar to Natalie, Anna notes that ‘three or four years ago, suits finally evolved to make an actual cut for a plus-size woman.’
While companies made larger suits, they weren’t necessarily cut for the curves of a plus-size woman. Then, Anna notes, ‘this concept that we have bigger boobs and chests finally clicked in. I finally found suits and then I started to really have fun with them.’
Anna’s observation is backed up by market research that shows a demand for plus-size swimwear has been rapidly increasing in recent years – causing once-hesitant designers to add plus-size options to their line.
Being able to wear glamorous swimwear has clearly had an impact on not just Anna – but on all three of these women who are now able to feel stylish all summer long.
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