What Style & Color Swimsuit is Best?

Camouflage Figure Flaws With your Swimsuit’s Style and Color

Whatever your figure flaw-emphasize the opposite..

  • The eye follows the line of your swimsuit.
  • Vertical lines lengthen and slenderize.
  • Horizontal lines shorten and broaden.
  • Diagonal lines can slenderize and add curves to the waist, but can also cut torso length.
  • Curved lines soften and add curves.

    • Camouflage Figure Flaws with Fabric

    Just as design can camouflage figure flaws, fabric finish can “improve” a figure. “The shine of the fabric can make a real difference,” says Cheryl Prewitt Salem.

    To slenderize a figure, cover it with a matte fabric. “If you put a dull fabric next to a shiny material, the shiny material is going to reflect light and look bigger,” explains Thomas Tolbert. “If you wrap yourself in it, you’re going to look larger. If you use a dull fabric, you still get the intensity of the color, but it will absorb light so you won’t look nearly as big. It can take three to eight pounds off you, where the shiny fabric will add three to eight pounds.”

    To add the appearance of increased weight to a very thin body, cover it with a shiny fabric. “I only like the shiny swimsuits when the girl is very, very thin, because it adds weight,” says Thomas. “If you are that thin and you don’t want to look anorexic-that’s when you need the shiny material.”

    Few contestants realize that pageant swimwear companies can make swimsuits from either side of the same fabric-using the glossy “right” side or the matte “wrong” side. Some companies now routinely cut their off-the-rack swimwear from the wrong side of the fabric to utilize the more popular dull finish. However, customers who special-order a swimsuit or have one custom made can usually specify whichever finish they prefer.
    Whatever your figure type, the right fabric texture can improve the appearance of your figure onstage.

    Camouflage Figure Flaws with Color

    Color is another effective tool for camouflaging a less-than-perfect figure. Use color to guide judges’ eyes to make them see what you want them to see. “To get the best color,” says Tolbert, “you’ve got to look at [the contestant] and ask, ‘Does this color make me look at her face?’ ‘Does this color make me look at her legs?’ ‘What does this color make me look at?’

    Color can draw judges’ eyes to a negative or a positive. Few contestants realize that their swimsuit colors can unintentionally call attention to a problem area. For instance, dark colors, especially black, create a visual “collision” where the dark fabric meets a lighter thigh, drawing attention to the contrast spot, which is a common cite for point-losing figure problems. Avoid colors that create an obvious contrast near a figure flaw.

    On the positive side, color can be an effective visual magnet to pull judges’ eyes off a problem area and onto an attractive feature. Let’s say that a contestant has a slender, well-shaped torso, but chunky legs. A swimsuit in an eye-catching bright, neon, or ”hot” color would pull judges’ attention onto the “magnet” color and the pretty torso it covers and off the problem legs.

    Color can also be used to change the apparent shape of a figure. For instance, black defines the shape it covers. As such, a black swimsuit draws judges’ eyes to the outline of a contestant’s figure. If her body is unbalanced-perhaps an exaggerated pear shape-black would be the worst choice because it would “advertise” that flaw. A better choice would be swimwear in a medium shade like rose, peach, lavender, or pastel blue or green. Because medium colors are closer to skin tones, they create an uninterrupted monochromatic line that pulls judges’ eyes over the figure in one fluid motion, thus deemphasizing any lack of balance. The right color can deemphasize figure flaws to create the visual illusion of a well-proportioned body.

    Contestants can also use color to alter their apparent height and weight, making a tall, gaunt body appear shorter and curvier, or a short figure look taller and slimmer. Kylene Barker, Miss America 1979, who is very petite at five foot three, chose a yellow swimsuit to visually create a long, unbroken line from head to toe that made her appear taller. Conversely, Elizabeth Ward (1982), who is nearly five foot ten inches and ultra-thin, visually cut her height by “interrupting” her body with a dark cranberry red swimsuit and matching shoes.

    Like these former winners, you can use clever color choices to improve your figure proportions. “Keep in mind that you want to look balanced,” advises Evelyn Ay Sempier, a popular former Miss America and national judge. “As a judge looks at you from top to bottom, you don’t want his or her eye to stop anywhere. You want it to move very quickly [over you] because there is a nice even look about you.”

    Just as design can camouflage figure flaws, fabric finish can “improve” a figure. “The shine of the fabric can make a real difference.”
    Cheryl Prewitt Salem, Miss America 1980 and swimsuit designer

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