Swimwear Bottoms

Swimwear Bottoms

The Types of Swim Bottom

Swimwear bottoms are named differently from brand to brand, so here is what each actually covers, roughly from least to most.

• Thong and cheeky — minimal rear coverage. Cheeky covers part of the seat; a thong covers very little.
• Brief or bikini bottom — the standard cut, covering the seat with a leg opening at the hip.
• Full coverage brief — cut wider across the seat and lower at the leg, with no gap. See full coverage bottoms.
• High waisted — comes up to the natural waist and covers the stomach. Any rear coverage from cheeky to full — see high waisted styles.
• Boyshort and swim short — a leg rather than a brief opening, covering the upper thigh. Swim shorts stay closest to the body in water.
• Skirted — a short skirt panel over a built-in brief. Skirted bottoms reach roughly the same point on the thigh but read softer once dry.

Rear coverage and rise are independent of each other, which is why a high waisted cheeky bottom exists and makes sense.

Should They Be Tight or Loose?

Snug, not tight — and there is a specific test rather than a feeling.

The waistband should sit flat against you without indenting the skin. If it leaves a mark after ten minutes, it is too tight and will be uncomfortable within an hour. If you can pull it more than a couple of centimetres away from your body, it is too loose and will shift when you swim.

The leg opening matters as much. It should follow the leg without cutting in — a band that digs into the thigh creates a visible line and rubs when you walk. Loose at the leg means the bottom rides up.

Worth knowing: swim fabric loosens slightly when wet. A bottom that feels correct dry will feel marginally looser in water, which is normal. If it feels perfect dry and slips wet, size down; if it feels tight dry, it will not improve.

Why Bottoms Cut In

Two causes, and they want checking in that order.

Size first. A bottom that is genuinely too small presses in whatever it is made of, and no finishing trick changes that. If the waistband leaves a mark within ten minutes of putting it on, go up before you look at anything else.

Construction second. Where the size is right and it still digs, what is doing it is the leg elastic and the way that edge is finished — and those vary enormously between two bottoms of identical size. Our seamless range takes that apart properly: which finishes lie flat, which stand slightly proud, and why the leg opening is where it shows up first.

Rise Changes Everything

Rise — where the waistband sits — does more to change how a bottom looks than the rear coverage does.

A low rise sits below the hip bone and shortens the leg line visually. A mid rise sits just above the hip bone, which is the most common and the most neutral. A high rise comes to the natural waist, defines the narrowest part of the torso, and covers the lower stomach in a way no other cut does.

Which is why the same brief in two rises reads completely differently. If you have been unhappy with bottoms generally rather than with a particular pair, rise is probably the variable you have not changed.

Buying a Bottom on Its Own

Bottoms are priced separately across most of our range, for two practical reasons.

First, fit. Bust and hip sizes rarely line up on the same number, and a matched set makes you concede at one end or the other. Second, wear. The bottom usually outlasts the top, since the top carries weight and gets stretched every time you put it on — so replacing one half costs about half.

One solid black or navy bottom pairs with almost any printed top, which is the cheapest way to get more combinations from fewer pieces. Browse tops separately to build the set, and the plus size range carries every cut through 6XL.