Removing Constricts Around The ‘Bikini Body'

Size-positive, homegrown labels are removing constricts around the ‘bikini body’ that has long conditioned the utility of swimwear

- Shriya Zamindar

We are long past the heyday of swimsuits that were only acceptable on athletic bodies like that of Gisele Bündchen. Swimwear held a strict code for decades, seen only on frames that were all edges and bones. Wearing a skimpy, triangle two-piece was not a simple choice, but a physical status, an accomplishment of achieving that taut skin-over-bones look.

That ideal has become archaic in this time of body positivity. Moreover, it has become acceptable and perhaps also preferable to be on the increasing end of the scale, what with female icons like Lizzo and Meghan Thee Stallion rapping about thick thighs and big girls – or so we idealists, united in our pursuit of a better world, would like to think. To reset the work done to demolish these constricts, it takes that one misplaced comment of cutting down and losing 16 pounds under three weeks in a public setting like the glorious Met Gala.

While sizing down to wear an existing archive piece fished from a museum is different, it can perhaps compare to the impact that clothing that isn’t size-inclusive has conditioned the bodies in society, inherently fuelling body dysmorphia in young girls and women. It represents the traumatically familiar ‘trial room syndrome’ that nudges one to agonise over body shape, hoping to fit into a certain cast, especially prevalent in the narrative built around swimwear.

THE SWIMSUIT ARCHIVES