Ruby Hammer MBE, 63
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Vitals: 5ft 4 , Dress size 8/10, 32D
Clothes can hide a lot of things; adding layers, wearing shapewear or even tucking in a shirt can makes all the difference in how comfortable we feel and how good we look. But you can’t wear Spanx beneath a bikini – in swimwear, there’s no nowhere to hide. So, for me choosing the perfect fit is critical.
At 63, swimwear should complement my figure and help me enjoy a well-deserved holiday. I launched my own cosmetic brand, Ruby Hammer Beauty, after decades of being one of the UK’s leading make-up artists, so feeling comfortable and relaxed is very important to me during my time-off. I don’t want to hide indoors, camouflaged by a kaftan dress and restricted by an ill-fitting bikini.
Instead, I want to be free to jump up at an instant to play with my three-year-old grandson, join the family on boat trips or discover new beaches and dive into the sea to cool off.
I don’t want my swimwear to put me into an compromising and revealing position. Achieving this requires a strict set of guidelines. I’ve got a stomach, thanks to the tail end of the menopause, which I factor in but that doesn’t automatically mean covering everything up with high waisted bottoms that make me look frumpy.
My long torso means a one piece can be tricky too – buy one too short and risk it riding up and pinching all day. Most of all, I need a bikini top that supports my bust so I can avoid the endless cycle of readjusting my top all day long. Can any deliver?
Red bikini
I don’t subscribe to the idea that women over a certain age should only wear a one piece – I typically reach for bikinis as I love being able to mix and match tops and bottoms to achieve the perfect fit.
Like the beautiful red set from Violet Lake, I’m wearing a larger size top to ensure my bust is well supported.
This red bikini top has a halter neck detail which is really comfortable as it has two ties – one on the neck and one on the back- so my bust can stay put all day in comfort.
The bottoms are more of a ‘hipster style’, they sit nicely across my wider stomach and hips but aren’t too revealing on the bottom either.
I don’t shy away from colour and this bold red colour would be perfect on the beach or by the pool.
Yellow bikini
This two piece unfortunately turned me into something no 63-year-old woman wants to be – a frump. I thought this butter yellow colour was lovely on me as well as being bang on trend for summer 2025.
However, the design of this set was a poor fit. The top was too big and the material didn’t hold me in or offer any support.
The fabric puckered and everytime I leaned forward there was a gape which revealed too much of my cleavage. While the bottoms on this were higher on the waist, I feel they concealed my hourglass figure rather than highlighting it.
As I have wider hips, this higher cut didn’t flatter my stomach and made my torso look much shorter and rounder.
Red one-piece
I’m very particular about when it comes to an all-in-one swimming costume. I have a long torso which makes finding one that fits well without riding up or pulling down my bust very tricky.
But wearing this, I can already imagine myself putting it on beneath my clothes, ready to spring into action for a day filled with swimming, snorkelling and adventure.
The thick straps and form fitting material hold my larger bust in well and when I bend down or move, the fabric doesn’t gape or risk any of me falling out.
I know high-cut swimsuits are en vogue at the moment, but this one cuts off at the top of my thigh which I much prefer and the soft material doesn’t pinch or pull at the skin.
Daisy Buchanan, 40
Vitals: 5ft 7, Size 12, 36B
Technically, I know that all you need to do to get a perfect beach body is to take your body to the beach, and that all any of us really need is confidence and sunscreen. However, even though I live by the coast, and spend a lot of time on the beach, there are a few things that are making me feel less than delighted about showing off my body.
Firstly, after running the London Marathon this April, I’ve gained some weight. I’ve stopped going out for three-hour training runs – but I’ve struggled to stop my post run cravings for toast, chocolate and pasta. It left me with a huge appetite – it’s like the opposite of Ozempic.
The cut-out flatters me – I’m never taking it off!
And this my second problem. I feel as though I’m the only person who isn’t using semaglutide. The jabs don’t feel right for me, right now, but that doesn’t stop me from comparing my body with the newly svelte and feeling a little zaftig. Finally, I’ve just turned forty.
Ageing is a privilege, and it’s nothing but a number, but there’s nothing like a big birthday to make a woman aware of the fact that her body is made of moving parts, and too many of those parts seem to be sinking, widening or shrivelling.
I don’t think anyone is going to take a second look at me in a swimsuit. But can I find a swimsuit that will make me feel beautiful, and excited about being on the beach?
Red cut-out swimsuit
This dark red cut-out suit has a definite Love Island vibe, and I approach with trepidation. I love Calzedonia, but I suspect it’s not going to be flattering. Surely I’ll end up spilling out of it, in all the wrong places?
However, I’m astonished by the fact that it’s so supportive, and so flattering. It’s secure enough to swim in, and instead of making me feel self-conscious, the cut-out detail enhances my shape.
I love the crossover straps at the back, too.
It’s a long time since I felt confident enough to wear a bikini – but this feels like a viable alternative.
Green ruched swimsuit
To be honest, this suit is the kind of thing I’d choose for myself without thinking about it – a tummy control swimsuit, with ruching to disguise the parts I feel especially self-conscious about (and all that post-marathon pasta).
So I’m surprised that this onepiece is underwhelming. The ruching is not flattering and does nothing for me.
Putting this on makes me realise that instead of trying to hide my flaws, I should be standing tall and celebrating the parts of my body that I love.
At 40, I want to feel like the very best version of myself. It’s not time to hide away – I’m allowed to feel fabulous.
Blue scallop swimsuit
The straps are thin, but the suit seems structured and supportive. I love the scallop detail on the cups, but I’m worried that my breasts won’t do it justice
However, when I try it on, my fears dissolve. I love everything about it – the fabric makes me feel held, rather than sucked in.
The tie detail at the back means it fits a bit like a bra and feels very secure, too. It’s structured, but it seems anything but sensible.
For the first time in a long time, I feel like a Bond girl. This suit costs a lot more than I’d usually spend on swimmers – but then, it’s about as much as I might spend on a dress for a summer wedding.
When I consider the cost per wear factor – and the fact that I’m basically in underwear in public – this feels like a bigger bargain. I don’t want to take it off.
Susannah Jowitt, 56
Vitals: 5ft 7, 18 on top, 16 on the bottom, 38F
As a curvy, apple-shaped woman in her fifties, I should be sensibly trussed into a hide-all-the-lumps black onepiece that renders me as invisible as a middle-aged menopausal lady ought to be when scantily clad. But I didn’t get that memo – all trolls please note – and being invisible has never been my style. I may not be taut but I won’t be taught.
One lesson I have learned the hard way is that the conventional teaching is all wrong: a flabby tum is not hidden by being covered up by a swimming costume, it is accentuated. This fat bird looks better in a bikini, believe it or not.
This fat bird looks better in a bikini than a one-piece
I do, however, have rules. When I shop for swimwear, I approach it as I do shopping for any outdoor clothing: function first, form second. The practical bathers I need for my cold water swimming are a world away from the bikini I want to flaunt my assets in on beaches crowded with pert young stick insects.
For the first, I need the struts and engineering of the Firth of Forth bridge, with a colour that flatters blue skin and goosebumps. For the second I need optical wizardry of both cut and colour; I avoid fussy details and patterns in favour of intense colour blocks; favour a shoulder-flattering halterneck that can be flipped forward over the head for full tanning when lying down, and bottoms that skirt that tantalising middle ground between brief but not bulging.
Teal tankini
I’m not usually one to go for a tankini. When you’re about to get half-naked on a crowded beach, you don’t need the word association with ‘tank’ anywhere near your thoughts, and the tops tend to totter into the discard pile because they look like they’re trying too hard to cover you up.
This for me is like a sign above my head saying, ‘Failing to hide the flab’.
But there’s something about the colour and the cut of this one’s jib that makes me feel like a Hollywood screen siren of the Forties.
All I’m missing are those white-framed pointy dark glasses, a long ebony cigarette holder and a white cat. I’m raising my imaginary martini cocktail glass to this lean green dream.
Red and white striped swimsuit
I may be built like a brick beach hut, but I don’t need to look like one.
As I gaze disconsolately at the vast circus tent that is me in a horizontal red and white striped onepiece, all I can think of are those seaside postcards from the Thirties: cartoons of spindly men with knotted hankies on their head being glowered at by brawny, bosomy women in stripey bathers.
The shape isn’t too bad: plain if a little unsupportive, but in my head, I can hear my mother saying disapprovingly, ‘Wide stripes are like hula hoops on a fat girl: they just don’t work.’
Orange and pink bikini
Whoever Curvy Kate is, I want to go on a girls’ night out with her, because she gets me.
The bottoms are artfully simple, cut high but not too high, with the perfect amount of cling and coverage that I feel supported but not swamped, just like with the best of friends.
Even better is the top: an intensely flattering, well-moulded bandeau that feels so safe I could swim the Channel in it and gives me a cleavage that would make me feel sexy all the way across.
And the colour is eye-popping: a tanfantastic shade of intense blood orange with a chic contrasting edge of pink. I feel I could stop traffic in this one – and not just because of the shock factor of seeing a 56-year-old fattie striding out in a bikini.
