What to pack for Swimsuits with Real Support: fewer pieces, chosen so they work together rather than separately. A small palette is what makes a capsule work, not a small number of items. Pack for the thing you will do most often, not for the one memorable evening. Underwire and real cup sizing are the only things that give actual support. Worth saying plainly: our partner brands do not stock swimsuits with real support itself, so what follows is the swim pieces we would actually put with it rather than links we cannot stand behind. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is bust support, leg line and fabric weight. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Ramy Brook's Rafaelle Underwire Chain Strap Bikini Top at $41, and Tanya Taylor's Sarita Bikini Top at $36. The first is the considered buy; the second is the one to start with. Anything under about 18 per cent elastane will go slack after a season. Underwire and real cup sizing are the only things that give actual support. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Buy the cover-up at the same time or you never wear the swimsuit off the sand. From the second group, Roller Rabbit's Regatta Marais Bikini Top ($68) is the one that earns its place, because it works in more than one context without being restyled. The third group is smaller and deliberately narrower, swim pieces, for the decisions you make after the main one. None of this needs the whole group. One piece from each is usually enough.

There are 20 swim pieces here from 14 brands, $36 to $297, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. Tanya Taylor's Sarita Bikini Top at $36 is the low-risk way in, and PatBO's AURORA LYCRA MIDI SKIRT at $297 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. To be straight about it, if you came here only for swimsuits with real support, this page will not solve that. It will solve what goes around it. Nothing here is included because it is famous, and price is not used as a proxy for quality anywhere on this page. If you take one thing away: pay for the thing that touches your body and economise on the thing that sits on top of it.