Swimsuits for women, put to the test

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Published: May 28, 2008

When it comes to swimsuits, what do women want? 

“I look for a bathing suit that looks fashionable and has a young look to it, but isn’t overly revealing.“  “Its more about the style and the fit, and then the price comes next.“  “One thing i do like within construction is to look for a double lining because to me that seems like it’s going to be a bit more durable.“

To find suits that will last, the Good Housekeeping Research Institute stretched them, washed and dried them, checked for pilling and evaluated them for colorfastness.  Then volunteers were asked to guess the prices of the suits. 

“The miracle suit?“ 

“$115”  “$80”  “I also wrote down $80.“ 

They were right in guessing that The Miracle Suit was one of the expensive ones. 

“The miracle suit did exceptionally well because of the great body-shaping ability of the fabric. It contained fifty five percent lycra.  It’s constructed very well.  It has nice foam cups inside with a lot of stitching. And its also made of double fabric so there’s a lot of modesty.  “Mossimo, at target.  What do you think?“ asked kathleen Huddy, Textiles Dir. Good Housekeeping Institute.
 
Volunteers priced this suit around $60, and were surprised to find that it was actually under $40. 

“The fabric itself did average in our tests, but for the price, it’s a great deal,“ said Huddy. 

And the Catalina for Wal-Mart fooled testers with its low price of $14.86. 
“This was the best-valued suit out of all the ones we tested.  It faded very little.  There was very little pilling.  It was the fastest drying suit.  The only thing about this suit is that it doesn’t have any inner lining with tummy control and it only has a basic shelf bra.“ 

“How much do women hate shopping for swimsuits? In one survey, women said they would rather do laundry, take their cars to be serviced, receive a call from a telemarketer or clean the bathroom than shop for a bathing suit.

Good Housekeeping says that women who want a lot of control from their swimsuits should look for styles with a high percentage of lycra. All cotton suits are more likely to fray or sag.