To Wear or Not To Wear: The Bikini If You're Over 50

   It's an ongoing debate: should women over 50 wear bikinis or two piece bathing suits. 
   First, I do truly believe that people should wear whatever they want to wear. 
   That said, this is a fashion and beauty blog, and I am concerned with not just appropriate attire, but also what looks good on women over 50 especially.  Since the point is to look good, that is the position I'm coming from.
  Pictures always help, so first, above, Courtenay co in an elegant black bikini.  At exactly age 50, she can still look good in a bikini, and certainly she should wear one if that is what she is most comfortable in.  Imagine how elegant she would look in a one piece though! Why?
    Well, one thing that you will notice is that very often older women will have a certain je ne sais quoi at the top of the hipbone. It's a slight heaviness, or fat, that can look like a wrinkle.  Courtenay has it, most of us over 50 have it.  The key to an older woman looking good in a bikini is the amount of aging shown by the middle part of the body.
  Below, Sharon Stone still has a great body. No one would argue that. In fact, even though she is several years older than Courtenay, I would say Sharon looks much better in her bikini than Courtenay does in hers! 

    Below, of course Helen Mirren looks good in her bikini. Again, I'd say she'd look much more elegant in a one piece simply because if she were 25 with the same body, I would recommend a one piece.  It's about looking good, and she could look better.

    In my book, for the best look, Anjelica Huston should definitely not be wearing a bikini. 
   Does it have to do with age? No, it has to do with the way that her body is shaped. Her legs look okay and so do her shoulders; cover up the part that doesn't look so good - her middle, and she would look much better at the beach.

   Below, Janice Dickinson is nice and thin, no question.  But she does not look good in a bikini! 
   Her skin on the middle part of her body is loose, not toned, and the hip line is very pronounced. Notice the "lines" or shadows you can see starting with her rib cage and going down (no, those are not her ribs).  Although she is skinny, it looks as though I could pull skin from her body in my hand. A one piece would cover that middle part that really shows her age!

    Below, Christie Brinkley is gorgeous and still has a gorgeous body.  Her body looks toned, filled out, but still not overweight. She fills out her skin.

 Below, I'm a big fan of Julianne Moore. Her middle part isn't bad, but she would still look so much better in a skimpy one-piece suit.

   So, should older women wear bikinis? If you are over 50 and you want to look the best you can, you probably shouldn't wear a bikini!
   However, I was on the beach once in Brazil in my one piece American bathing suit when I saw a woman about my age or older in a Brazilian bathing suit.  She was a bit larger than me, certainly had one of those beautiful Brazilian bums, and the marks of time showed on her as she stood there with her husband and two grown and beautiful daughters.  She had stretch marks and aging skin, but stood there as comfortable in her own skin as she could be, in fact, she was much less self-conscious than either of her two beautiful daughters.
   My own son, in his early thirties at the time remarked that he thought that the freedom that she had to wear that bathing suit at her age without anyone thinking twice about it or being judgmental was wonderful.  And I know exactly what he meant!
  Me, at 63, I'm sticking strictly to a one-piece although I may wear a bikini when I'm in my best friends pool (as I did in my own pool)  and it's just the two of us. The feeling of freedom is just too tempting!


  Note: some of the photos here came from http://www.faboverfifty.com/wstyleblog.php/?p=13099.