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OT- Story and Shopping Tip: Bathing Suits
This is half story, half shopping tip:
For those of us in the US and Canada, the shivery time in January really doesn't get us thinking about bathing suits. But June will be here before you know it, and if you have a teen, that means new and expensive bathing suit time. Manda is a special challenge: she likes to look fashionable, but feels very uncomfortable in anything sheer or too revealing. That means that cheap bathing suits from places like Target or Old Navy are out. She doesn't want a one piece bathing suit either, since those are only for the "jockettes" on the swim team. We've found a nice compromise in tankinis, a tank top sort of thing with a bikini bottom. Both Target and Old Navy carry these sorts of suits, but the fabric is thin and leaves nothing to the imagination. (All those years of my running fabric between my fingers like an old lady and commenting "This'll never wear." have paid off. She's as bad as I am!) I especially like tankinis because Manda sunburns within seconds of exposure, and I don't want all those years of putting sunblock on her by the gallon to have been for nothing. Last year, Manda lost a ton of weight, and her prior years bathing suits were falling off her. Of course, she let me know about this the week before her class outing, and double of course, there's no way she's going bathing suit shopping with Bob. "Here's a nice burkha for you, hon!" After much discussion and hair pulling, the two of them made me aware of the problem, and I decided to throw money at it. I bought her two tankinis at the extortionate price of $68 apiece, plus 3 day shipping. Despite my horror at having spent so much money, the suits arrived the night before the big class outing, and Manda looked terrific. She also reported that her tankinis covered enough that she could run and play games (shuffleboard? - I have a 90 year old living with me, and never even knew it) without anything "bouncing out." BTW, at least in this section of the world, _no one_ wears a tee shirt with a bikini, the solution when I was a girl. Many girls wear tankinis and the rest wear bikinis. A few girls tried to get away with wearing thong bikinis at the outing (at age 14? What parent would buy their 14 year old a thong bikini? They can't all have bought the things on the sly and snuck them out of the house) This year, I was prepared: Land's End clears out their bathing suits in January. I bought Manda three bathing suits for less than the price of one of last years. If you our your teenager will need a bathing suit, check out the overstock area on the Land's End web site. They have a huge selection in the smaller sizes, and a reasonable selection in lager sizes. I highly recommend their suits. Almost all of them are fully lined, and non have that "get wet and show everything" look. They are durable, and if Amanda hadn't had such body changes this year, I wouldn't be buying more swimsuits. My own Land's End bathing suits (a lot bigger than a size six) are a good ten years old, and are as good as new. But I only buy classic styles in navy or black, so those puppies are going to be as unstylish twenty years from now as they are today. The tankinis are stylish enough that other girls asked where she got them, and later on in the summer we saw several classmates who had gone to Sears to buy similar swimsuits. (Sears carries Land's End merchandise) You'll have to be quick on these, though: the bathing suits in anything but the tiniest sizes go quickly, leaving only $68 swimsuits that make Mama cry. The overstock tab is where you need to be - Land's End doesn't make it obvious, probably because they would love to sell you a $68 swimsuit. BTW, I always buy Manda's winter jacket for the year in May or June, as soon as Land's End starts clearing them out. Like the bathing suits, they're less than half the cost of coats bought during "high season." It didn't work out so well this year: Manda lost a ton of weight, and the women's large coat I bought looks like a sleeping bag. She was a 12 last year, and is a 6 these days, and I buy winter coats on the big side for layering. But even my faux pas had a good side: Manda's school has had furnace problems, and the school is unbearably cold at times. Manda's "sleeping bag" covers her up and keeps her very warm. The kids at her school all wear those puffy down coats, so style isn't a problem - these coats are the same as when I was a kid. They seem to have a better fabric, though: I don't see anyone with masking tape over a hole in the ripstop nylon to keep the feathers from flyiing out. Kathy N-V |
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