Classic Dressing - Beachwear

Hello my lovelies!

I hope you’ve managed to keep cool this summer.

I have, by spending many hours swimming in our island’s invigorating and clean sea. 

I sling on a pair of shorts or this dress from Next 

and head for the beach, here with my Dutch friend La Duchesse. 

This is my favoured beach, Grandes Rocques.

It’s just down the road from my house so is convenient for a quick dip. 

On this day it was covered with long strands of sea weed, both on shore and in the sea, which made for pretty messy swimming.   I’m glad to say it’s not usually like this. 

So I spend a lot of time of the beach in summer - but what do I wear?

Swimwear, obvs. 

See some posts I’ve written previous on swimwear HERE

HERE

and HERE

Do check the posts out - in one you get to see The Photographer doing his Daniel Craig on video!

You’ll see that the swimsuits I wear these days all provide good coverage.

No so much coverage in my younger days though, 

here’s what I wore in slimmer times. 

A bikini in a brown cotton with white pinprick spots. 

A black and white striped jersey bikini. 

Both of these bikinis would still work today, but just not on me.  

These days it’s not bikinis for me, obvs.  

You’ve seen my body covered, and that’s bad enough!

Trust me on this one. 

 I like  need a good cover up. 

Because this swimsuit (from Marks & Spencer) covers nicely around the bust area, I can just sling shorts or skirt on which makes for a fairly decent combo for walking to, from and on the beach. 

I also bought the same style in a different fabric.  

I wear these two on repeat all summer long. 

I have to say that because my time on the beach is either swimming or sitting in a granny chair wearing a beach dress cover up, these two practical swimsuits are my go tos for dipping. 

My view is that an abundance of cleavage isn’t a good look on a mature lady.  I felt uncomfortable wearing some of my older swimwear.  It was like I woke up one day and suddenly became aware that all my swimsuits were practically cut to the navel!  And although my bust still looks ok, I realized that an older woman displaying her wares wasn’t something I felt comfortable with.  

So I searched out a swimsuit with good cover and support around the bust.  

This style is perfect for a lady of a certain age.

But I will say that this style of swimsuit took an awful lot of googling so persevere if that’s the route you want to take.  I had to resort to a slightly unusual choice, as you will see in one of the links above.  But it works. 

Over the years my go-to online shop has been Bravissimo.  They do an excellent range of larger cup sizes in bras and swimwear, which drew me to the site. 

Find the BRAVISSIMO swimsuit range HERE

So I’ve been wearing my cover up swimsuits only these past few years.  My others don’t get a look in these days.  Like this one, sadly. 

This is a very pretty tankini from Bravissimo and it always reminds me of the Cote D’Azur.  I think it looks fresh and French; I can imagine a latter day Brigitte Bardot wearing something like this. 

And I did wear this on the Cote in 2016 so there is that too - a swimsuit with happy memories!

Our beaches are reminiscent of the Côte d’Azur, as the sea is a sparkly blue/jade and the sand is soft and white too. 

But back to my pretty tankini set shown above - it is a bit cleavagey and it also has underwiring. I no longer think underwiring is healthy for that sensitive area of my body, so I haven’t been wearing it, though one day I may remove the wire and see if the halter neck alone provides sufficient support. 

But there’s still the cleavage issue .,,

so maybe it’s time for it to go. 

Are you sensitive to cleavage display as you age?

And what’s your view on underwiring?

So, me and swimsuits have moved on light years. 

This is the closest you’ll get to seeing me in swimwear these days, mostly submerged in the sea. 

Or a head and shoulders

No full body shots!

The swimming has been simply wonderful this year. 

We’ve made good use of the beach.  

We’ve been careful to protect ourselves from the harmful rays of the sun of course. 

Chips of the beach is a once during the summer treat!

Yup.  Life really has been a beach this summer. 

 

Fortunately our beaches don’t get over crowded; these shot comparisons were taken on the same day during our first heatwave.   

I think the UK beach is Southend. 

In a UK heatwave, many living near the coast head for the sea to cool off, though I was surprised that more weren’t cooling themselves off in the sea.  That beach must have been hot!

Wishing my UK readers a very pleasant and sunny 

Bank Holiday Monday. 

A la perchoine,

Mary xxx.