Weekend + Swimwear Remix

This was quite a fantastic weekend. I made it back to my parents' house, ate large amounts of food in the name of carbo-loading, ran a road race with friends, and had a late in the season swimwear shopping trip.

In preparing to go on vacation at the end of the week, I wanted to add a piece or 2 to my swimwear repitoire. Now I know this is nowhere near a novel concept, but lately I only add one separate at a time to my collection of bikini separates. In reality, I just have a number of half-bikinis used only to mix and match solids and prints. To an extent, I prefer having mismatched suits to pretend to be like those beach girls that have that whole I-look-incredible-without-even-trying thing going on.

Anyhow, here is what I look for when shopping to maximize mismatch potential in pieces:

Solid colors in basic bikini shapes. Bottom by Target.

Basic textures (no crochet, screen prints, woven-in metallics, or any other foolishness out there). Textures like crochet are meant to be worn with their pair, otherwise it just looks lazy. Loeffler Randall.

Multi-colored prints with a capital MULTI (this is just to pair a wider variety of separates with it). By Jinx!

Limited hardware. When your distressed bronze rings on the bottoms and the wooden beading on the top come together, it can be a bit distracting. It's best to just avoid it all together. By Aguaclara.

Contrasting & complementary colors- don't play it too safe. Marc Jacobs Resort 2010.