12 reasons to say yes to the swimdress!
Here at Artesands we are a passionate group of girls that have a love for fun, sun, water and anything in between (of course anything swimwear related). Our days in the office aren’t usual office days as you’d expect, our days are spent talking, laughing, eating, laughing again and then of course designing and working to make sure we have the perfect plus size product for all you girls to have your curvy beach bodies out confidently this summer. As it our ongoing mission to make as many women as we can empowered enough to enjoy the summer.
It is our quest to normalise the human body.
This blog post is on Swimdresses, but first let me explain how we got to this blog topic of 12 design principles that make the perfect swimdress. Over the last couple of weeks we have been moving offices ... and we all know how straining packing boxes and moving can be, but even more so when it’s your office space…and we have had to pack all our swimwear samples up (& oh my, we have a lot to pack), you never realise how much you’ve collected over the years until you need to pack!
So our team was pumped for packing up day - NOT! But we all got together and started what we knew would be a very long dusty and dirty day of packing folders, strike offs, artwork and a sh**e load of swimwear samples. At the end of day, when our computers and desks were packed, we knew we had to say goodbye to our old office space.
As much as we loved it, the A team (as we affectionately like to call ourselves) - Team Artesands, is on a different floor to the rest of the office, I think it’s because we are too loud and we like to have a great creative space. We loved our tiny and cramped private office floor, but I believe our love for our space was more about the team connection that we had and less about the actual space. We are definitely not going to miss how cold it was in winter and how really really hot it was summer 😂😂
and then it was swimwear packing up day
Can you imagine an office space just jam packed with swimsuits?!? And I’m talking every kind of swimsuit you can ever possibly imagine, bikini’s, tankini sets, copious amounts of one pieces, sun safe rash tops, boardshorts, beach coverups and the list goes on. Oh wait you don’t have to... as look, I took a sneaky pic! (sssh the girls won’t like that I’m posting this)
Look at this chaotic mess and what we had to sort and pack up.
But as the day went on, it became less about packing and more about reminiscing. We were finding styles we had done in the past, what we liked about these swimsuit styles and then what we did not like. Funny stories were remembered... and all though my body aches now, we did have a fun day of packing.
It is amazing how much you talk whilst packing, all topics were covered as we were pretty much in action for the best part of 9 hours. At one point we were actually becoming really inspired that I even had to try and find a notebook to write down notes of what we were discussing and creating and capture all the ideas as they were flowing. At this time whilst we were being super inspired, we started to have a really great conversation about swimdresses.
Now mind you, this is not a topic that we regularly discuss because to be honest, none of us are swimdress wearing girls, BUT here we were surrounded by mountains of swimwear and we kept getting caught in the loop and coming back to where we left off in the swimdress discussion.
The conversation started by referencing people we knew that wore swimdresses, and what style they wore. We joked about our nana’s and their swimdress wearing days, and really discussed how far the swimdress has come, and it really is time to get those visual images of nana out of your head in her old 1970’s swimdress.
We were finding all our development swimdress designs. Over the few years that we have been developing the Artesands brand, we have experimented with a few different swimdress shapes - some that made it into our ranges and others that will remain on the design room rack for future ideas and development (and let me tell you all - there are a few future swimdress ideas with mighty potential!) and others that never made it from the first fit as they never measured up to our awesome looking computer graphic CAD sketch.
Swimdresses and what makes a great plus size swimdress.
We were analysing each of the styles what we liked and what we did not like, what had potential and what we could develop further. As we were pulling out a new reference shape to pack away, we would analyse each style, with pros, cons and what we loved about it – we got really fast at doing this, but we ended up pretty much comparing every new, every original and every half developed swimdress shape back to our already fabulous best-selling style Delacroix. We did not find one reference sample, or one future development sample that even compared to the ease and wearability of our already established style Delacroix. It was a positive conversation.
So, in this blog I thought I would share a lot of the ideas we were throwing around on packing day and jot down a few of the notes I took. But I also thought what a great idea to throw it out to you guys to join in on the research of ideas and have your thoughts on what makes a fabulous totally wearable swimdress? What makes a good curvy girls swimdress? Below are our pointers and notes, But PLEASE hit us with your ideas. We love receiving feedback from our customers, it really helps us to make the best plus size swimsuits for you gals to wear.
So, what makes a great curvy girl swimdress?
A swimdress, by our terminology is a dress you can swim in, so not just any old dress that you jump in the water in. Reminds me of my old swimming lesson days as a teenager and you would have to do those survival certificates where you would have to jump into the pool fully clothed and swim a lap of the pool, just in case one day you had to jump off the side of a burning cruise ship
(probably not likely now!)
However, if you have ever done this as well, you will well know that normal dresses CAN NOT be a swimsuit. Nothing is more embarrassing than the jelly fish look and having your dress skirt up around your neck and trying to swim like this is not an option.
What does a swimdress look like and what makes a really great plus size swimdress shape? Below is the List that we came up with,
12 factors that make a great fitting
plus size swimdress
1. Confidence
Obviously point one for us, is making sure a plus size swimsuit will make you feel confident and empowered whilst wearing it. It is our aim to have all women love their bodies and be able to enjoy the summer, so this is always number one on our lists of defining factors.
2. Modesty
Provide more coverage than the average plus size one-piece swimsuit. Look, it is obvious that if we are choosing to wear a swimdress we are not girls that like to run around in a bikini, so modesty is a great factor that needs to be considered.
3. Waist Defining
The quintessential body shape that we all love, that emphasises our gorgeous curves is a beautiful hourglass, and what better way to create this then through waist definition, an A-line skirt that does not cling to your body and just skims your hips gives you a beautiful shape and a perfect example of waist defining. But is saying this all swimdresses should have a skirt shape that adds shape and style to your curves.
4. Bust Enhancing
Not just bust support, but also bust enhancement! Why not promote our best feature and the enhancement of the bust truly does help create the perfect hourglass shape.
5. One Piece
The perfect fitting plus size swimdress must be a one-piece swimsuit,
it cannot be a piece of nylon / elastane that you just pull over another swimsuit – now what is the point in that! Refer to my jelly fish school swimming comment from earlier.
6. Built in Bust Support
This is just a given, of course we are going to put bust support in our swimdress, no one wants to swim with their boobs around their waist.
7. Does Not Jellyfish
This is a really important factor. I have sat in a spa before and had my swimsuit completely jelly fish up around me, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t push it down or sit on it. The swimdress skirt needs to be either fitted or long enough that can be sat on or held down easily.
8. A Swim Pant
A perfect swimdress needs to have a swim pant attached. This is in addition to the one piece factor, it needs to have briefs
9. Extra Sun Protection
I am a little bit iffy on this idea, sorry work colleague that suggested this! For me if a swimsuit does not cover your shoulders, upper arms and mainly your decolletage (the areas that age the most from the sun) then it shouldn’t really be consider more sun protection.
10. Full Coverage Bottom
Yes, more coverage over our booty’s and a lower leg line is preferred. We are not wearing a swimdress to be skimpy.
11. To look cute or elegant
Well that is everyone’s aim isn’t it!
12. Colour and Print design
Not every print looks great in a swimdress and really a heavy texture fabric should be avoided in all plus size swimdresses. There is a lot of fabric that goes into the construction of a swimdress and the extra bulk of texture will really weight it down and it will become really heavy in the water.
Have we covered everything here?
Please we would love to hear your suggestions.
Drop us a line and tell us.
Whilst we went through all our samples and found SO many different forms of plus size swimdresses – different lengths, differing necklines and strap widths and all with so many different details, colours and prints, we still kept coming back to our Delacroix swimdress shape.
So if you haven’t met our Delacroix plus size Swimdress, let me introduce you to a few today.
Our Delacroix is our most loved style and those who are Artesands swimsuit wearers, then you know all the great benefits of our wire-free comfort Delacroix style.
Our Delacroix one piece swimwear style is our best selling plus size multifit cup one piece swimdress style. Every curvy girl needs a swimsuit that just makes you feel good when you wear it and our Delacroix shape is that shape.
Our Classic and timeless Delacroix curvy fit one piece swimdress shape has the ultimate wire free comfort and support with full body powermesh for tummy control and body sculpting confidence. For more information on what powermesh is, read our blog on the Power of Powermesh.
This style has multifit cup support that fits a cup range of D cup, DD cup, E cup, F cup and G cup, the sewn in cup has powermesh surrounds so it can fit a larger or smaller cup depending on breast tissue. Our Delacroix swimdress shape also is an A-line dress shape which is oh so flattering, as it is very waist defining. Our A-line dress skirt falls beautifully around your curves and will not cling to you.
On a side note, all of our Artesands styles are named after Artists, so if you are wondering about the name Delacroix and where it came from: Eugene Delacroix was an impressionist artist who was inspired by all things exotic and the forces of the sublime. We love Delacroix as he is remembered for his passion for expressive brushstrokes and just his zest for life itself.
Buy your new summer swimdress here!
Say yes to the swimdress!
All of our women’s curve fit swimwear is available in
plus sizes US 8 - US 20 and sizes AUST 12 - AUST 24.
To find swimwear in your size click the size link
Try our styles, if it’s the wrong shape for you we have really easy returns!
We would love for you to explore with us and to try a different shape that's maybe different to what you already have. We have plus size swimsuit styles available to fit and compliment most body shapes. Happy Shopping!
Love, The A Team
xx
