Panache Swimwear

A dress-sized swim top has one measurement to work with, so it scales the whole garment at once. Go up a size and you get a wider band, a wider cup and a longer strap together, whether or not that is the combination you needed. For a B cup the compromise is invisible. For an F cup it is the whole problem: you buy up until the cup is deep enough, and by then the band is too loose to anchor anything, so the straps take the load and dig in.

Bra sizing splits those two measurements. The band is fitted to your ribcage and the cup to your volume, independently, which is the only way to get a firm underband and a full cup at the same time. Panache then builds the top the way it builds a bra: a wire following the root of the breast, a three-part cup with seams that direct volume forward and up rather than sideways, and side panels tall enough to stop spill. The straps become adjusters rather than the support system.

That is the reason this collection reads as a bra range that happens to be waterproof. The engineering is the same, and so is the size on the label.

Across the styles on this page, the bra-sized tops and swimsuits cover bands 30 to 42 and cups D to K in UK letters, which run in this order:

• D, DD, E, F, FF, G, GG, H, HH, J, JJ, K

Note where the doubled letters fall. UK sizing inserts DD between D and E, FF between F and G, GG between G and H, and so on, which is why UK and US letters drift apart as the cups get bigger. A UK F is a US G. A UK G is a US I. A UK K, the largest cup here, is a US O. Count cups up from a B rather than matching letters and you will not go wrong. The conversion table above has all twelve.

The bottoms and the swim skirt are not bra-sized. Bottoms run XS to 3XL and the skirt runs S to XXL, and because every piece is sold on its own you are never forced into a set that fits in one place and not the other.

If your band is above a 42 or you want the size axis rather than the brand axis, start from plus size swimwear instead.

Start with your Panache bra size. If you wear a 34F in Panache lingerie, order a 34F swim top. The cup frames are shared, so the starting point is exact rather than approximate.

The caveat is water. Swim fabric has more stretch than lingerie fabric, and it relaxes further once it is wet. A top that fits perfectly dry in the shop will be slightly looser in the sea. So if you sit between two sizes, or if your band is at the loose end of comfortable, take the smaller band. It should feel firm when new, on the loosest hook, with room to tighten later as the elastic settles.

Sister sizing still applies. If a 34F band is too tight, 36E gives you the same cup volume on a wider band. If a 34F cup is too small but the band is right, 34FF is the next cup up. The relationship works exactly as it does in bras.

Coming from a US brand? Convert the cup before you order, using the table above. Matching the letter instead of converting it is the single most common mistake with British swimwear, and it is usually two or three cups wrong.

All three are built on the same cup, so the choice is about coverage and about how you want to buy, not about support.

• Bikini top: the most size flexibility, since you pick the top and the bottom separately. Balconnet shapes go highest in the cup range, to a K. Bikini tops.
• Bandeau: a bikini top with the strap axis changed, for a clean neckline. Wired and cup-sized, so it behaves unlike a standard bandeau. Bandeau bikinis.
• Tankini top: the same bra frame with a body attached. Covers the midriff, still pairs with any bottom, and is the easy answer if you want coverage without committing to a swimsuit. Tankinis.
• One-piece: one garment, one size to get right, full structure built in. Less flexible if your top and bottom sizes are far apart. One-piece swimsuits.
• Swim skirt or swim dress: the most coverage over hip and thigh, worn with a bra-sized top. Swim dresses.

For an active holiday, the same logic that makes a sports bra worth owning applies here: the more the garment holds, the less you notice it.

Swimwear dies from chemistry and heat, not from wear. Chlorine and salt both attack elastane, and in a bra-sized top the elastane is doing structural work, so when it goes you lose the fit rather than just the look.

Rinse in cool fresh water as soon as you are out, before anything dries. That one habit does more than any detergent. Hand wash in cool water with a mild wash, then press the water out between a towel rather than wringing, which is what distorts a wired cup.

Dry flat, out of direct sun, and never on a radiator or in a dryer. Heat is what breaks elastane down fastest. Do not hang a wet top by its straps either: the weight of the water stretches them permanently.

Store cups nested, not folded, exactly as you would a moulded bra, and keep a second top in rotation if you swim often. Two tops worn alternately last considerably longer than one worn daily, because the elastane gets time to recover between wears.