What Makes a Good Swimsuit? The Same Things, at Every Age

We shot the new range on two women with a few decades between them.

Not as a statement. We just needed the suits photographed, and these were the two people who turned up and walked into the water like they'd done it a thousand times before, because they had.

What you see in the shots is two women mid-conversation, walking up the sand, not thinking for a second about what they're wearing. That's the whole idea. A swimsuit has done its job when you stop noticing it.

Here's the thing we keep coming back to after twenty-plus years of making swimwear in Tweed Heads: the list of things that make a suit good doesn't change as you get older. The cut you reach for might. The standard doesn't.

Four things that matter at any age

It holds at the shoulder and the leg line

Almost every complaint about a swimsuit traces back to one of two places. Straps that dig or slide. A leg line that rides up mid-lap and needs a tug at the wall. If a suit is going to fail you, it fails there first.

This is a construction question, not a size question. Bound edges, properly set elastic, and a strap that's anchored rather than just stitched on, that's what keeps a suit sitting where you put it for the length of a session. It's also the part that's easiest to cut corners on, which is why cheap suits feel fine in the change room and terrible forty minutes later.

It stays opaque

Wet, stretched, in bright sun, after a season of use. A suit that goes sheer when it's wet or thins out across the seat after a few months wasn't built with enough fabric weight to begin with. This is the single most common reason people quietly retire a suit early, and it has nothing to do with how it looked when it was new.

It survives chlorine

Chlorine, sunscreen and UV are what actually kill swimwear. Not swimming. A suit worn twice a week in a chlorinated pool is under chemical attack every session, and standard fabrics go baggy, bleached and see-through fast.

Our fabric is a recycled Italian yarn, regenerated nylon spun from post-consumer waste like fishing nets and old carpet, selected for its resistance to chlorine, sunscreen and UV. Practically, that means the suit you buy in spring is still the suit you're reaching for the following spring.

It's cut for moving, not for standing still

A swimsuit designed to be photographed and a swimsuit designed to be swum in are different garments. One is cut for a still pose. The other has to handle a full shoulder rotation, a tumble turn, a dumping wave, and getting hauled up over wet hips in a cold carpark.

If you can't do a big overhead stretch in the fitting room without the suit shifting, it isn't going to hold up at the 800m mark.

What does change

Plenty, honestly, just not the standard.

Coverage preference. Some swimmers want more back coverage, some want less. This tends to shift over the years in both directions, and there's no correct answer.

Strap style. Thin, crossed straps sit beautifully and suit a lot of people. Wider straps and a bound racerback spread the load differently and feel more secure to others, particularly with a fuller bust. Both are proper training suits. Pick the one you forget you're wearing.

Getting in and out. Underrated. If shoulders are stiff, a suit that's a wrestle to peel off wet is a suit you'll stop packing. Cut and fabric stretch matter here more than people expect.

Sun exposure. More time in open water, or a history of it, often means reaching for a rashie or a higher neckline. That's a coverage decision, not a concession.

Fit through the torso. Torso length varies enormously between bodies and changes over a lifetime. It's the number one reason a suit that's technically the right size still feels wrong: too short, and it drags at the shoulders; too long and it bags at the front.

Why we make it this way

Every Kozii suit is designed, printed, cut and sewn at our studio in Tweed Heads South. That's been the case since we started in a garage at Kingscliff in 2003.

It means we print in small runs rather than warehousing thousands of units, our prints are hand-illustrated in-house so you won't find them anywhere else, and when something in a style isn't working we can change it not next season, but on the next run.

It also means we're not designing for a demographic. We're designing for a set of conditions: chlorine, salt, sun, and a person who wants to get in the water without a second thought.

That's the range, really

Different bodies. Different preferences. Same standard.

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Frequently asked questions

How long should a swimsuit last?

A suit worn two to three times a week in a chlorinated pool will typically show fading and loss of shape within three to six months in a standard fabric. A chlorine-resistant fabric should comfortably see out a full year of that use.

What's the difference between a training swimsuit and a fashion swimsuit?

Construction. A training suit uses heavier fabric, bound edges, anchored straps and a leg line cut to stay put through full range of movement. A fashion suit is designed to look right standing still.

Do I need a different swimsuit as I get older?

Not a different standard. You may find your preferences shift on coverage, strap width and how easy a suit is to get in and out of — all of which are personal, not age-mandated.

Why does my swimsuit go see-through when wet?

Usually fabric weight, or degradation from chlorine and sunscreen breaking down the elastane. Both are avoidable with the right fabric.

Is Kozii swimwear actually made in Australia?

Yes. Designed, printed, cut and sewn at our Tweed Heads South studio.