Swimwear Types

If you have ever looked for a swimsuit you know how many swimwear types and brands are on the market.

There is a great variety of styles for women, men and kids and finding the right one for you can be difficult. For women there are bikinis, one-pieces, monokinis, tankinis, shorts, microkinis, full-length whole body suits such as neoprene wet suits for surfing and diving and many versions in between. The variety for men includes Speedos, briefs, swimming shorts, board shorts, several different full-body suits for competitive swimming and wet suits for surfing and diving. Many of these styles and swimwear types are mimicked in the children, toddler and infant swimwear.

Swimwear types itself can range from modest over normal to sexy and skimpy. The very first bathing suits in the early 1900s and just before were very modest bathing suits, more like a dress with tights for women and a suit for men to cover any and all body parts possible. The one-piece slowly evolved to the modest one-pieces we now know, but not without creating some uproar every time more and more skin came to sight.

After world war two the bikini was invented which back then was a two-piece with a swim pants that reached right above the navel and a bra style top covering most of the women’s breasts just leaving a small strip of skin in between. Its name was derived from the bikini atoll, where atomic tests created lots of anger and worry. Later inventions where monokinis, microkinis and tankinis. A microkini is essentially a very tiny version of a bikini, just covering the genital areas in the front and the nipples on the breast. The fabric used is a minimal amount and usually the covered parts are connected by string or thong like contraptions. Rudi Gernreich who created a one-piece bathing suit that exposed the breasts first invented the monokini. Other monokinis on the market do not all expose the breasts but have other sexy strategic cutouts.

A tankini is also a two-piece bathing suit but in general as some kind of tank top shaped top. It is usually a more modest version of the bikini with the comfort of a two-piece bathing suit.

For the male swimwear types, the ones been around the longest are shorts and Speedo style swim pants. Longer pants that have fabric and designs to make them dry faster are often called boardshorts. They usually reach to the knees or just below and found a great following in the surfing and skating crowd, but also slowly find their footing in the regular swim world. Speedos have more many years been used by competitive swimmers and only now that newer technologies that reduce the drag and resistance in water are developed for fabrics longer briefs, pants, jammers and whole body suits are getting more popular.