From bikini bodies to the tan tattoo trend, let’s not give in to tired tropes this summer writes our fashion expert
Tan lines are in this season. Image: Getty
Playboy bunny tan stickers, €10.64, ebay.ie
Isla bikini top, €67, neverfullydressed.com
Isla bikini bottom, €44, neverfullydressed.com
Swimsuit season is here, ladies, and I’m here to teach you how to get the perfect bikini body. Step 1: Have body. Step 2: Have bikini. Step 3: Put bikini on body. Tah-dah! That’s all there is too it. Forget about the expectations airbrushed celebs and influencers have pushed on you and please, please forget misogynistic expectations of the female form. Whether you’re a pre-teen graduating to her first two-piece or a new mum navigating a changed body shape, it’s yourself who’s judging you the most. Realistically, everyone else is too self-centred to even notice others around them — but isn’t that freeing?
So, for this swimwear column I’m not talking about tummy control panels or what is and isn’t “flattering”. I want to focus on fun, and a brand that knows how to have fun is Never Fully Dressed. This summer we’re going bright and bold, so the brand’s Isla bikini is the perfect poolside ’fit.
Isla bikini top, €67, neverfullydressed.com
Another way to add some fun to your swimwear is with jewellery. A waist chain paired with your bikini gives cool girl energy… although I urge you not to leave it on while sunbathing or else you’re in for some abstract tan lines.
Speaking of tan lines, I’m shocked to see that “suntan tattoos” are back in. You may remember this trend from the early noughties: tanning salons offered stickers in different shapes to place wherever you liked on your body. Ten minutes with the sticker on in your tanning bed and you came out with a tan tattoo.
Today, Gen Z are recreating this by free-hand drawing on their skin with suncream while on the beach. Twenty-four-year-old pop singer and TikToker Addison Rae took it a step further by using make-up to recreate a full tan line poking out under her actual bikini. Coming from a generation who are supposedly obsessed with skincare and anti-ageing products, I find this trend perplexing. Let’s save the bright colours for swimsuits not sunburn!
Playboy bunny tan stickers, €10.64, ebay.ie
What your Playboy bunny tanning sticker says about you…
Growing up, you had your finger hovering over the channel change button of your remote control for fear that your parents would walk in on you watching Playboy mansion-set reality TV show The Girls Next Door.
You weren’t there for the seedy underbelly of it all, but rather for the glam and bubbly blondes such as Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson, who got to dress up like Barbies and live a fun Hollywood life.
These days, you listen to Madison’s and Maquardt’s podcast Girls Next Level, which reveals the behind-the-scenes drama of the show and what it was really like to be a ‘girlfriend’ of the late Hugh Hefner… yikes!
Your heart belongs to the 2000s — and so does your tanning oil. Get some factor 50 girl.
#Orla #Dempsey #swimsuit #season #fun #letting #hangups #SPF
