Swimwear is one of our favourite things to shop for here at PSTT, but there has been a bit of a shortage of really good swimwear for superplus people in the last couple of years.

What is Superplus Swimwear?

Superplus sizes are those which start at a size 26, and there’s been a definite trend of availability dropping right off at around size 30. We thought we’d conduct a little experiment and look at some plus size ranges’ swimwear offerings, setting the size at a Size 32 to see what we could find. Here’s how we got on! 

The Good

Yours Clothing

Yours Clothing can be a little hit and miss when it comes to plus size clothing. Their size selection is perfect, but they have an affinity for a butterfly that doesn’t go down too well in the plus size community and so many wasted opportunities that are ruined by dressing fat people like old ladies. That being said, Yours Clothing’s super plus swimwear range is en pointe, with really fun bold patterns and designs, and hardly any of them frumpy. They do seem a little bit fond of a swim dress, but we can definitely see the value in that – they look pretty cute! 

SimplyBe 

SimplyBe is a pretty solid choice when you’re looking at clothing that goes up to a size 32, though sometimes we find that their choices can be a bit limited when you reach the higher sizes. While this is still true for their swimwear – there are about ⅕ of the options for a size 32 than there were for a size 16 – anybody shopping for a superplus swimming costume will be pleased to know that there is a good selection of really pretty swimming costumes to choose from at SimplyBe.

The Bad

Evans

It’s not that the swimming costume that Evans offers is necessarily bad, it’s just that it’s one single swimming costume, and one single costume is not the sign of a well thought out range. We tried clicking about a bit to see if we were missing something or searching with the wrong keywords, but no – there really is only one swimming costume available on their website. But at least there are just as many options for a size 14 as there are for a size 30.

Next 

Next aren’t particularly known for their plus size options, but while doing our research we were excited to see that they might have something to offer. The swimming costumes on Next’s website are great – they’re really pretty, relatively well priced and we could see ourselves wearing any of them on golden sands while on holiday. It’s just that when you filter your search by a size 32, you are suddenly only left with three options, and they’re all pretty frumpy. They get points for being practical and probably quite physically supportive, but there’s nothing pretty or special about the swimming costumes at all. 

The Ugly

New Look 

New Look’s plus size range has definitely been a grower, not a shower, with the maximum size very slowly creeping up from a size 28 to a size 32. While many would argue this was them cashing in on the plus size dollar without actually providing options to superplus people, we thought we’d have a quick look at their swimwear options. We actually burst out laughing when we saw the two items that New Look were offering people who were a size 32. While these costumes are definitely great options to be available at all sizes, we wished there were a few more… swimsuity options. But at least we know where to go for our cheesecloth beach shirts.

Curvissa

Curvissa isn’t often the first place we think of when its time for a shopping spree, so we weren’t sure what we’d find when we searched for swimwear – but it certainly wasn’t this!

The first piece of clothing we were greeted with was a bubble hem tankini – yes, bubble hem – and it only got worse from there. We aren’t even sure how the swimwear will fit because it was all modelled on straight-sized people. We were definitely disappointed!

Where do you get your super plus size swimwear? We’d love to know some more recommendations!