Best Women's Swimwear: One-Pieces, Bikinis and Crochet Cover-Ups

A one-piece and a bikini are answering different questions this summer. Hunza G's square neck one-piece is built from that brand's signature crinkle stretch, a shape that fits almost any body without sizing. Cala De La Cruz's Audrey one-piece takes a more tailored approach, cut with visible seaming instead of stretch alone. A crocheted pants and top set nearby is barely swimwear at all, more of a cover-up that happens to be knit from cotton. A simpler bikini top, by contrast, is cut small and plain, the least fussy piece in the group.

The plain triangle top is losing ground to bikinis with more going on. La Porte's Kate bottom is built around metal hardware at the hip, a detail borrowed from lingerie rather than beachwear. Juillet's Ingrid top takes the opposite route, keeping the shape simple but bringing in polka dot print instead of a solid color. The other two tops here stick to plain shapes, which gives the eye somewhere to rest between the busier pieces. Mixing a hardware bottom with a plain top, or a printed top with a plain bottom, is the easiest way to wear the trend without overdoing it.

Simkhai's Laine one-piece is the most tailored swimsuit in this group, ruched through the body in a way that reads closer to eveningwear than beach gear. The rest of this lineup stays in bikini territory, but Ziah's hardware bottom borrows the same hip-hardware idea as elsewhere here, this time in a heavier chain. The two tops nearby offer their own take on an equator-inspired shape, thin straps and a low-cut triangle that has become something of a summer standard. Put a hardware bottom under a plain top, or under nothing at all with the one-piece, and the look still holds together.

Not every swimsuit here is trying to make a statement. Eres' bikini top and bottom are cut plain and fit close, the kind of swimwear built to last several summers rather than one season's photos. A softer, similarly plain top follows the same logic elsewhere in the lineup. Lisa Marie Fernandez's Marilyn one-piece is the outlier, a stretch suit with a scooped back that splits the difference between the plain bikinis and the one-pieces earlier in this edit. Buying into the quieter end of swimwear does not mean giving up the ability to change how it fits day to day.

This edit keeps coming back to the same choice: hardware and pattern, or plain and durable. Neither direction is wrong, but they photograph and feel different on the body, and most people gravitate hard toward one side once they try both. The one-pieces here, especially the Hunza G and the Simkhai, are the pieces worth building a rotation around because they hold up to actual swimming, not just standing near water. The hardware bikinis are more of a styling exercise, fun to mix and match but not something to rely on for laps. If you take one thing away, let it be that a swimsuit collection works best with one true one-piece and a couple of bikini tops that can be mixed across bottoms. Buy fewer whole sets and more pieces that combine. That is how this edit is built, and it is worth copying.