Swim shopping tips for Anita and RosaFaia

I had a wonderful trip to New York courtesy of my Aunt who has a small apartment there! There’s so much to see and do so I didn’t get in a visit to as many lingerie shops as I had hoped to but some would consider getting to five shops plus Bloomingdales quite a few!

We are well into swim season for most but if you’re still looking for swimsuits and your department store is picked over it’s a great time to find good deals! I promised more detailed information about particular swim brands that are mainly available at lingerie shops which specialize in getting you to a more accurate and better fitting bra size than the one you might currently be wearing. If you have lingerie shop close enough to drive to that also carries swimwear that is really your best option for best fit and selection usually. If you’re not able to do that, Her Room and Bare Necessities and Swim Outlet are some great online options for you. But how do you sort through all of the options on these sites? I can really only speak for the brands I know from fitting them personally but I’ll mention a couple of others that have a great reputation as well. Personal favorites in no particular order are Anita, Elomi, Fantasie, Panache and at the higher end Simone Perele and Empreinte. All of these offer something a little different and have different size range specialties. Because there’s so much information about each of these to cover I’m going to focus on one or two per week. July is swim month at Lingerie Connections!

Anita/RosaFaia is a brand that has among the biggest size and style range of any swim brand. They make suits from dress size 6-28 and cup sizes go from A-J.

There is a large selection of pocketed swim in all styles if you use prosthetics for mastectomy or for other natural asymmetry. You can also find a good selection of the prosthetics themselves some designed specifically for swim. There is also a great selection of maternity swim. Anita makes mix and match solids and prints in bikinis and tankinis for a very customized suit from top to bottom. The mix and match bottoms go from skimpy bikini to full high waist brief with stopovers at swim shorts and skirts.

One pieces and tankinis are available with wire and without and they also carry a few skirted suits. I personally feel that with prints and styles available that Anita has a broad age range appeal. They use a great mix of solids and prints and asymmetrical sewing detail for flattering looks in all sizes.

The mastectomy swim usually only goes to a D cup size but a good tip if the size works for you and you want a more modest look, try the pocketed swim (which will lay flat and be invisible) because they generally have a higher neckline than the non-pocketed swim. For other individualized tips on style or size selection for this brand connect with me! I can take some of the headache and guesswork out of the shopping equation!

Another brand that I want to tell people about is Penbrooke. When I went to the Swim Show in Miami a couple of years ago, this is a brand that I was all ready to write orders for but then found out that there was a swim shop close by that sold this brand. They are dress sized but made with good quality supportive fabrics. They have some very cute and somewhat unique styles. They are great suits and can be found online at SwimOutlet.com or in local independent swim shops. Some of the swim dresses have a full one piece underneath and some are just a dress made with swim fabrics and some of the styles that look like a tankini have a one piece underneath or are looser fitting if you don’t like a tankini that is snug around the middle so that you can see the elastic line from the swim bottom.

These styles are great also because with a pair of shorts they look just like a flowy tank top. Penbrooke also has a few post mastectomy suits as well. The brand starts at size 8 and go to size 26. Penbrooke makes even more bottom styles than Anita. There are a couple of different swim short styles and skirt styles as well as different levels of coverage in the various swim bikini and brief styles.

I’ll cover a couple more brands in more detail next week. If you have any questions about different Anita or Penbrooke styles you find, I’m happy to be a shopping consultant to try to narrow down which styles might be your best fit among all the different options. A quick reminder that I don’t receive any compensation from any brand. I just want to help others so connect with me and let me know how I can help you or a loved one look and feel your best for maximum fun in the sun! 👩🏻‍💼