Finding THE ONE...

I tried and tested six high street black swimsuits. Here's what I found (including 'the one')

Hi!
How are you? How has your week been? I hope you’re managing to keep cool, wherever you’re reading this!
So today I am trying something a little different. As you know, I regularly share things that I have bought or been given, eaten, read or watched (both here, here and here). No gate-keeping around here! Personal recommendations are where this all started for me, back in 2010, sharing stylish/affordable clothes/accessories for little ones (when mine were babies). And my tiny blog/business, and my readers’ trust grew from there. Initially it was only things I had actually seen IRL (in shops), touched and could personally vouch for. I obviously still do this, along with sharing edits of online (fashion, home, gifts, beauty…) finds. So I thought (thank you Hannah for planting the seed!), maybe let’s take things a step further in terms of the personal sharing - not just sharing the item/piece, but delving a little deeper, and doing more research into ‘the others’.
I have already shared my annual black swimsuit edit on Douceur.uk, but how about actually ordering a bunch of those swimsuits and trying them on, and sharing my findings with you? So here we are! I ordered seven black (high street) swimsuits (there are only six here, because the seventh has, annoyingly, since sold out. It was from & Other Stories, and wasn’t a favourite), tried them all on (my size 12-14 body - closer to a 12 these days as a result of my twice weekly strength training and daily 10k steps I assume, as opposed to the daily Classic Magnum heatwave habit?), then kept two favourites (to add to my existing small collection of black one-pieces), and returned the rest. No gifts were exchanged in the making of this post.
So here’s what I found (in no particular order)…

1.

H&M, £24.99

I will always love a classic style like this one. In fact, I already have a very similar one that’s my current go-to. I like this fabric too - it feels ‘secure’, but not restrictive. It’s described as having 'padded cups’, which was always a no for me, but actually when I tried it on, it was definitely not looking like any (for me, unwanted) padding had been added. If I didn’t already have a very similar one, I would probably have kept this one.

2.

La Redoute, £46.39

I fancied trying something a little prettier, but that was still simple in style. I loved the frills. But this wasn't for me. Personally I found the frills, although pretty, were a little annoying as they kept twisting over (this might just be the stylist in me being super-fussy though!). I also didn’t love the deep v-neck - I don’t know what it is about a v-neck, but they just never seem to work on me. I find them neither flattering or cool. So this one went back.

3.

H&M, £32.99

This is a really pretty (and quite a sexy) costume, but it didn’t fit me at all. The wired (I generally avoid as I find them pretty uncomfortable) cups didn’t sit right on me, and the cut is waaaaay too high for my granny tastes. In a nutshell - the proportions were all wrong on me. I kind of knew this one was a bit of a wild card, but felt I needed to try something a little out of my comfort zone (urgh, hate that term) for the purposes of the mission. This one went back.

4.

Boden, £53.20 (was £76.00)

This was my third favourite. My friend Kim has an asymmetrical black swimsuit, and I have always coveted it. She looks amazing in it - chic and cool (the swimsuit holy grail right?). So she was my inspiration for trying this one. I also really, really rate Boden swimwear (they were one of my biggest, long term clients when I was a freelance stylist, so I’ve seen literally hundreds of their one and two-pieces up close, and on/off models) - the quality is great, and the cuts/shapes are thoughtfully designed. They also have varying degrees of support (or scaffolding as I like to call it), depending on your needs/preference (some literally rival Spanx for control! Even models used to complain that some styles were actually painful to get on and off!?! Fact). I had a (surprise surprise!) black one with a scalloped trim from Boden that I had and loved for years. But now I think about it. haven’t seen in a while? Hmmm, will be looking that later…
I love the ribbed fabric and the asymmetrical neckline (which sat perfectly on me). If I needed an ‘extra’ swimsuit (I don’t), this would definitely be the one I would get.