I take my walk around Astoria Park every morning, and once May rolls around the women who head to the pool at the YMCA start showing up in the bagel line with their swim bags. I notice what they have on. Not the suits, the cover-ups. Because the cover-up is what carries you from the car to the chair, from the chair to the snack stand, from the pool to the bench where your grandkids are eating popsicles. The suit only has to work in the water. The cover-up has to work everywhere else.
I spent thirty-five years fitting women on the floor at Bloomingdale's, and the same rules I used for bras apply here. Start with the structural piece, then think about coverage, then think about how the fabric behaves on your actual body. Not the body in the catalog picture. Yours.
What a cover-up is really for
A cover-up does three jobs. It keeps the sun off the skin that's been showing the wear of seventy summers. It gives you a layer of warmth when the breeze comes off the water and you've got a wet suit underneath. And it lets you walk into a coffee shop or a hotel lobby without feeling like you forgot half your clothes. That's it. It is not supposed to hide you. It is supposed to dress you.
Once you accept those three jobs, picking one gets a lot easier.
Fabric first, style second
If you only remember one thing from this piece, remember to read the fabric tag before you look at the cut. A cover-up made from a heavy cotton crochet looks darling on the hanger and then weighs eight pounds when it gets wet, drags on your shoulders, and takes two days to dry on a hotel chair. That's a piece of laundry, not a cover-up.
What works for women our age:
- Lightweight rayon or rayon-blend — drapes nicely, doesn't cling, breathes when you're warm.
- Cotton-modal jersey — soft against skin that's gotten a little thinner, washes well.
- UPF-rated nylon and spandex blends — the same fabric your suit is made of. Dries fast. Brands like Coolibar, Cabana Life, UV Skinz, Lands' End and Title Nine make actual rated pieces (UPF 50+, which blocks about ninety-eight percent of UV). If you've had any kind of skin cancer scare from your dermatologist, this is the category to spend in.
- A light open-weave linen — only if you're not going to get it wet. Linen and chlorine do not get along.
What I would skip: anything labeled crochet, macramé, or fringe-heavy. They snag on bracelets, they snag on chair arms, and they look fussy. Fussy reads younger than the person wearing it, which is the opposite of what we want.
The four cuts that work
The caftan or kaftan
This is the one I steer most of my friends toward. A good caftan skims the body without grabbing it, gives you full coverage from shoulder to mid-calf or ankle, and lets you walk into a beachside restaurant for lunch without changing. Look for one with a real V-neck or a tied keyhole — a high crew neck on a caftan makes you look like you're wearing a nightgown to the pool. Three-quarter sleeves are forgiving on upper arms without committing to long sleeves on a hot day.
The button-front shirt dress
An oversize linen-blend shirt that buttons down the front, worn open over the suit or buttoned partway. Sounds plain. Looks polished. Travels in a suitcase without a wrinkle if you pick the right fabric. Pair with sandals and you can run an errand without going back to the room to change.
The sarong, used correctly
A rectangle of light fabric you tie at the hip or under the arms. The trick with a sarong at our age is to skip the printed-tourist version and get one in a solid color or a quiet small print. Tied at the hip over a suit, it gives you a clean line from waist to knee, which is plenty for walking from the chair to the snack bar. Packs flat. Doubles as a beach blanket for the grandkids. Eight dollars at any beach town.
The swim dress or swim tunic
These have come a long way. Brands like Lands' End, Cabana Life and SwimZip now make them in the same UPF-rated fabric as suits, with shoulder caps, three-quarter sleeves, even short-sleeve hoods. If you've had a mastectomy and you're swimming with a prosthesis, look for one cut with a higher neckline and a slightly higher armhole — it gives the suit underneath room to do its job without showing the band or the pocket seam. These pieces are not glamorous and they are not trying to be. They are the most practical thing on the beach.
What to skip
I'm not the body-shaming type, and I will not tell any gal what she can or cannot wear. But there are pieces that simply do not perform on a 60-plus body the way the magazine spread promised. Crop tops over a bikini bottom — the proportions never sit right once posture changes. Mesh anything — you came to cover, not to filter. A romper or playsuit — getting in and out of one in a beach bathroom with a damp suit underneath is more aerobic exercise than the swim was. A maxi dress with a thigh slit — lovely on a fashion editor, drafty in real life.
Practical notes I tell my walking buddies
- Buy one size up from your dress size in cover-ups. They are not supposed to fit like clothes — they are supposed to fall.
- Dark navy, sand, black, and soft white photograph well with grandkids. Bright tropical prints date a vacation photo in five years.
- If your bra-band size shifted after surgery or after the pandemic, the same is probably true at the bust on a cover-up. Try it on. Reach overhead. If the shoulder pulls or the armhole bites, it isn't the one.
- Bring it home and wash it once before the trip. A piece that pills, shrinks, or bleeds in the first wash is going to ruin a suitcase.
- A wide-brim hat and a pair of polarized sunglasses do more for a beach outfit than any cover-up will. Pack those first.
One last thing
I had a customer back at the store, a woman about my age now, who told me she stopped going to the pool with her grandkids because she didn't have anything to wear from the locker room to the deck. We fitted her in a long navy caftan and a simple racerback one-piece underneath. She went back to swimming. That is the whole point of a cover-up. Not to hide a body, but to get you from the door to the water without thinking about it. Pick the fabric, pick the cut, and go.