You have a beach week booked, a bikini top you like, and no wish to spend it tugging at a bikini bottom every time you climb out of the pool. The swim shelf answers that with three shapes: a skirt, a skort and a pair of capris. And once you start looking at rash guards, a number appears on the label, UPF 50+, that deserves a plain explanation.
Swim skirt or swim skort
A swim skirt is a short skirt sewn over a brief. It moves loosely around your thighs, looks like a skirt when you walk to the snack bar, and dries fast in the sun. A swim skort puts a pair of shorts inside the skirt instead of a brief. The shorts stay where they are when you step up a pool ladder, sit on a boat deck or kneel on a towel to dig in the sand.
Both pair with a tankini or bikini top you already own. If most of your vacation is lying by the water, the skirt is the lighter of the two. If it involves a boat, a kayak or children pulling you around a water park, the skort earns its shorts.
Swim capris for active days
Swim capris reach below the knee and sit high on the waist, so they stay put when you paddle, lean over the side of a board or bounce through a water aerobics class. On our swim shelf they are nylon or polyester with 15 to 18 percent spandex, which is what lets them grip without a drawstring cutting in.
Capris cover the thighs from the sun and from the rough seat of a rental kayak. Worn with a long-sleeve rash guard, they leave little skin to worry about beyond your hands, feet and face.
What the UPF number means
UPF stands for ultraviolet protection factor. The Skin Cancer Foundation describes it as how much UVA and UVB radiation a fabric lets reach your skin. A UPF 50 fabric lets through about one fiftieth of the rays, which is the same as blocking about 98 percent.
The Foundation rates the numbers in bands as well: UPF 30 to 49 as very good protection and UPF 50 and up as excellent. So when a rash guard label says UPF 50+, it is telling you which band the fabric sits in.
| UPF on the label | How the Skin Cancer Foundation rates it |
|---|---|
| 30 to 49 | Very good protection |
| 50 and higher | Excellent protection |
What lowers the protection
The number on the label describes the fabric as it comes off the rack. The Skin Cancer Foundation notes that fabric which gets stretched or wet loses some of its protection, and a swim piece spends its day doing both. The American Academy of Dermatology adds that dry clothing protects better than wet clothing.
Color and weave matter too. The Academy points out that dark colors and tightly woven fabrics protect better than light colors and fabric you can see through, including open weaves such as lace. Hold a cover-up up to the light: if you can read through it, the sun can get through it.
None of this replaces sunscreen. The American Academy of Dermatology still recommends shade and a broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher on every part of your skin that clothing does not cover.
Which cover-up goes over which suit
Pinup Fashion Sheer Mesh Long-Sleeve Cover-Up
Mesh cover-up · XS to XXL and 18W · 8 colors
From $36.99- Terry cloth absorbs water like a towel, so it goes straight over a wet swimsuit for the walk back from the pool.
- Sheer mesh dries quickly and shows the suit underneath. Treat it as a style layer for the beach bar, not as sun protection.
- Crochet reads dressier and suits lunch by the water, and like mesh it is an open fabric.
- A sarong ties at the hip or the chest and folds small enough to sit at the bottom of a beach bag.
- A strapless beach dress takes you from the sand to a casual restaurant without a change.
Sizing and caring for swim bottoms
Order swim skirts, skorts and capris in the size of the swim bottoms you already wear. The waistband is what holds them up in the water, so it should feel snug when dry. Cover-ups are cut loose and go by the size of the suit underneath them.
Rinse every swim piece in cool fresh water after the pool or the ocean, then follow the care label sewn inside. The Federal Trade Commission requires that label to give at least one safe way to clean the garment, and the fiber line next to it lists spandex or elastane, which are two names for the same stretch fiber.
Unsure about a size, a fabric or a wash? Write to occasion@pin-up-fashion.com and the people behind Pinup Fashion will answer.