Swimsuit shopping. UGH. The very notion fills me with anxiety, and I know I’m not alone in this. This is why I’ve had the same ill-fitting, $7.98, Old Navy clearance rack tankini for the last two three years. This is why before that, my favorite swimsuits were always vintage ones. cute 1940s numbers that were extremely forgiving.
But vintage has become hard to find, except on eBay of course, but we’re talking swimsuits here – ya gotta try them on. And be able to return them if they don’t fit. So you can imagine my delight when I found the Vintage Swimwear by Popina Swim site, based out of – you guessed it – Portland, of course. Where everything is better than anywhere else.
I am head-over-heels smitten with the Sadie one piece swimsuits, and will be placing an order just as soon as I make up my mind. Red or black? Solid or print? I’ll probably stick with the solid black, but the black and white poppy print is tempting me, as is the red polka dot. Decisions, decisions.
It’s almost enough to make me put in an appearance at my company’s beach party*. Almost. That’s a bit extreme, but if these suits are as cute in person as they are on the site, well, at least it will enable me to appear in public in a swimsuit. El Matador, here I come!
*Chartered double-decker bus, unlimited open bar, middle of the day, bunch of incredibly loud, hard-drinking twentysomethings? No thanks. I’m much more of a glass-of-wine-with-dinner kind of girl.


July 27, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Oh my. You’re brave! I’m very body bashful and can’t imagine ever venturing in public in a swim suit! But if I had the ounce of courage to wear a swim suit, I would choose the Retro Sadie in either the poppy or polka dot — those are so adorable.
All of a sudden, The Smiths’ Shyness song just came into mind…
July 28, 2008 at 10:19 pm
haha! i have bought 3 swimsuits from popina this year. 3!!! and before that, 1 in 10 years. i have the 2 piece tankini in that nice b/w floral. it’s lovely.
July 29, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I have also heard great thing about the Esther Williams swimsuites (she of the classic old swimming movies)
http://www.esther-williams.com/swimwear.htm#HERE_ARE_SOME_PHOTOS_OF_OUR_BEAUTIFUL_ESTHER_WILLIAMS_SWIMWEAR
July 31, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Do you sew? (I think I’ve seen some old postings where you sewed). I spotted this Burda Style vintage swimsuit pattern recently: http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns?filter=88&sortby=mostrecent