Braving the Bikini

Natasha Dee reluctantly paid a visit to Molly Brown's Swimwear at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on a recent Friday afternoon. Never mind that she considers swimsuit shopping a modern-day torture tactic. The 25-year-old from Vancouver had a weekend of sunbathing ahead of her and only packed one suit.

Stepping from rack to scanty rack, Dee carefully looked over the two-piece suits that could comfortably fit into her denim shorts back pocket. After about 10 minutes of browsing, she had yet to pluck a suit worthy of a trip to the fitting room.

"I haven't found anything that comes in 'fat ass' yet," she said.

Dee blames her particular body type -- which she describes as "bumpy" but most would simply call pear-shaped -- for her dread of swimsuit shopping. And, there are many more like her. A recent Anytime Fitness study shows that more than 70 percent of Americans would rather visit their in-laws, go to the dentist or do their taxes than shop for a swimsuit. A FITNESS magazine poll reveals that 80 percent of women feel other women judge them in a swimsuit and 48 percent say they'd feel better about wearing a suit if they lost more than 20 pounds.

Considering the dayclub pool at The Cosmopolitan, Marquee, has topless sunbathing three times a week, it would seem not every woman suffers from body image anxiety. In fact, it isn't unusual for Molly Brown shoppers to jerk the fitting room curtains open and proudly expose, not their swimsuits, but their birthday suits. According to the store manager, Nicole Dineen, she sees just as much of that kind of shopper as she does women such as Dee.

That's why her staff members keep a copy of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue handy at all times. The calls requesting a certain suit on a certain page come in year-round. If a shopper wants to wear one of the suits Brooklyn Decker halfway wore in the magazine, she probably has more pride than shame when it comes to her body.

The key to successful swimsuit shopping, Dineen says, comes down to honesty. Shoppers have to confide in the stores' sales consultants. They have to tell them how much they want to bare, which features they're comfortable punctuating and which they'd rather mute. Most important, they need to have a realistic body image because "if they don't have one before they come," Dineen says, "they'll have one before they leave."

Selling the closest thing to being naked that a woman can buy isn't always easy. Sometimes having a customer in the buff, though, can work to sales consultants' advantage. When a shopper refuses to try a suit that Dineen knows will flatter her body type, she gets logical. "You're already naked," she'll say. "You might as well put it on."

For instance, new moms who can't get past the pooch their pregnancy left behind can have a hard time accepting that a Luli Fama side-string bikini or a Vitamin A Brazilian suit won't do their body any favors. For them, high-waisted bikinis nostalgic of the pinup era or one-piece suits with cutouts usually do the trick. Both camouflage a pooch while still exuding sex appeal.

Unless it's for a fight over the last L Space fringe bandeau bikini, Molly Brown's at The Cosmopolitan still hasn't had a shopper burst into tears and Dineen doesn't expect they will. "Every woman has something she's self-conscious about," she says. "But there's always a way to make her happy."

The fact the store's bikini bottoms only go up to a size large could have something to do with that.

That said, not even the kind of affirmation that comes with a tiara and sash is always enough to make a woman secure in a swimsuit. Natalia Benenson-Harris is the local designer behind Sexy Fly bikinis who earned the Miss Arizona Teen USA crown in '03 and won the Miss Arizona swimsuit competition in '07. The 26-year-old still has one complaint. "I took ballet and dance for years, so my thighs are very muscular and bigger," she says. "It's something I try and look beyond." Instead of dwelling on a flaw no one else can see, Benenson-Harris focuses on her abs, her favorite physical feature. Nowadays, however, many women are obsessing over the same body part: the booty.

They want it bigger and rounder. The culprit could very well be the slew of tabloid pictures that have captured Kim Kardashian's bikini bottoms holding on for dear life as she frolics on the beach.

"I think with media, the butt has become such an important asset," says Benenson-Harris. "Girls are looking back there way more these days."

Probably because men are looking back there more. Whatever the reason, swimsuit designers have answered the call in the form of Brazilian cuts that cover much less of the bottom and another feature that's called the scrunchy butt. With a seam down the center of the bikini bottom's backside and horizontal ruching, the scrunchy butt is said to make even flat booties appear more substantial.

Breasts are second to booties, as far as body concerns, but the philosophy is still bigger is better. Benenson-Harris recently polled Twitter followers on whether or not her bikini tops should have removable padding. She had 120 replies, all voting yes.

Dineen at Molly Brown's Swimwear says she hears the words "I need some support" almost as much as she hears "This is very small." The women with large breasts complain that nothing fits while the women with small ones say they can't wait to get bigger breasts. As someone who has had the pleasure of putting a woman who was post double-mastectomy surgery in a piece that put a smile on her face, Dineen doesn't let anyone's body issues defeat a potential sale.

If she could say one thing to women about to go swimsuit shopping, what would it be? That's easy: "Don't be afraid."