Racism has a way of hiding in plain sight: Sometimes, it even follows like a silent stalker down the shampoo aisle. In this month’s “Life with the Girls,” Eboné Denise shows through her personal experience how fraught and unsettling a ho-hum errand can feel for a Black woman…and why she’s starting to have hope that things might actually be changing.
Before it was a thing, Liz Forkin Bohannon came up with the idea of making sandals with interchangeable ribbon ties that could be made by women, for women, to raise enough money to send girls in developing nations to university. She launched Sseko Designs in 2009 from her home base in Portland, Oregon. From a handshake deal under a mango tree in Uganda, she’s grown her fair trade business to 65 employees in almost as many time zones, a third of whom at any one time are earning money to go on to higher ed. From that game-changing sandal concept, Sseko now sells more than 300 different items like scarves, jewelry, handbags, clothing and, as of a few weeks ago, coffee.
In 2015, Liz brought the business onto Shark Tank and, in 2019, she wrote Beginner’s Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose and Impact Now. “It’s all been such a fun, wild ride,” she told Bare Necessities.
Find out what’s next for this Power Figure on a mission to make the world a more equitable place for womankind.
Bikinis sometimes get a bad rap for offering too little coverage and support for the chestier among us. Fake news! No longer should you feel like you need to sacrifice style and have to wear a basic, bra-looking swim top to the beach (or, heaven forbid, a sports bra—yes, we’ve heard it all).
At a specialty swim shop like Bare Necessities, you can find a vast range of bikini cuts and styles that actually buoy your boobs and bring you the season’s hot trends.
You have to see our swim buyer Megan Puma’s top picks for the smartest bikinis the world of fashion has to offer. Whatever swim style you prefer, they’ll shore up your confidence well before you hit the water.
In these unprecedented times—if we never hear those words again, it’ll be too soon—we’re all learning to sit with some degree of uncertainty and angst. (And if somehow you’re not, we want to live on that planet.) While 2020 hasn’t exactly gone according to plan, Bare Necessities remains, as ever, here to support you.
To that end, we’ve rounded up 10 of the best pieces of wellness advice for this challenging moment in time to help you keep your calm and carry on this summer. Let us know in the comments what’s been working for you personally; the more strategies we can all draw from, the better off we’ll all be.
Bras and swim are what we do at Bare Necessities. That’s how we know you want very different things out of them: From bras, you often want pretty but subtle designs that reliably work with your assets and your wardrobe. From swim, though, you’re more likely to want to make a style statement.
We’ve long loved Freya and Fantasie because their designers get this, too. While both of these sister brands cater to women who wear small band-full cup bras, they do it their own ways.
Buyers Heather Viskovic and Megan Puma are on-hand to share their Fantasie and Freya favorites.
Emily Andrews found the love of her life more than two decades ago; she just didn’t know it at the time. One ex-husband and two kids later, wedding bells are ringing for her all over again in this month’s “Life with the Girls.”
“I’ll always bring coffee,” he said, after I thanked him for surprising me with Starbucks. My heart jumped; it was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment in my life.
I was going through a divorce, I had two young kids, and he was essentially saying, “I’ll always be here to help you.”
My coffee fairy was actually my best friend from high school. Almost 20 years after graduation, here he was sitting next to me at my eldest daughter’s gymnastics class. We had recently reconnected, and he had stopped by during a break from work to keep me company.
He and I first met at a high school football game when I was 14 and he was 15. The next year, we were class officers and on yearbook together. We spent weekend nights hanging out with our friends; we could talk and laugh for hours. Spring break of our senior year, we spent an entire day together—I’m not sure how it ended up being just the two of us that day, but we had the best time swimming, eating and hanging out.
I was always drawn to his outgoing, caring personality, but we stayed “just friends.” He had a girlfriend, and I had a boyfriend. Our mutual friends always told me he was in love with me, but it was never the right time for us.
After college, I moved from our home state of Indiana to New York City to work at a magazine. He moved to Indianapolis, with a brief stint in D.C. Our high school group remained close, and he and I saw each other at weddings and get-togethers every so often. After six years in New York, I moved back home, married and with a baby on the way.
Fast-forward to gymnastics class. I was single again, and this time around, it finally felt like everything was falling into place. He was unattached, too, and quickly becoming a huge emotional support for me. We traded texts and funny memes on Facebook. I could vent my feelings to him: He was there when I needed him but gave me space when I wanted it. He did his best to try to make me smile. For the first time, I started to think of him as more than a friend.
But now I was worried about fully bringing him into my life. The logistics and legalities of my divorce were still being worked out. I was anxious about finances and life as a single mom. I told him I couldn’t believe that he would want to get involved in my mess of a life. He quoted me the lyrics of that Vance Joy song: “Your mess is mine.” I was the only one with hesitations. He was all in.
Another worry of mine: Physically, things had changed over the years. I have stretch marks and a mom pooch that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. When I look back at pictures from high school, it’s hard to believe my chest was ever so perky. But in the end, none of it mattered—he still admired me for who I was at my core and, as adults with busy jobs, kids, chores and workout routines, who has time to worry about stretch marks and sagging skin?
Speaking of kids, mine took to him pretty quickly. He colors with them, plays princesses and reads to them. He is playful and silly, loving and caring, responsible and kind. So kind that he sends me a “good morning” text detailing different reasons he loves me every day when he gets to work. He brings me flowers when I’m having a rough day. He tells me that he dreams about me, even though I’m sleeping right next to him. (It’s pretty awesome to be someone’s literal dream girl.) At 38, he makes me feel like I’m 18 again.
Of course, we’ve had bumps in the road. We have a co-parenting schedule to juggle, and there have been times I’ve pushed him away because I’ve been upset about one of my kids being sad, or I’m overloaded with tasks and chores, or I’m exhausted and feeling overwhelmed.
“Some things in life feel inevitable, if only in hindsight”
He asked me to marry him. Next year, we’ll finally say “I do” surrounded by our family and friends. My daughter and niece will be bridesmaids, and my youngest daughter, a flower girl.
When I texted one of our high school friends last year and told her we were dating, it took her, I kid you not, less than a second to respond, “It’s about damn time.” Needless to say, our friends are as over the moon as we are. Some things in life feel inevitable, if only in hindsight.
I can’t wait to celebrate the fact that, ultimately, I found love right where I left it. It was there all along. We just had to live 23 years apart—23 years of experiences, relationships, loneliness and heartache—to find it.
We always love getting to know the person behind her namesake label. That includes Rebecca Virtue, the creative director of two of our very favorite swim brands, Becca and Becca Etc.
Born and raised in California with an interior designer for a mother, Rebecca grew up surrounded by the beach lifestyle and great design, both of which she channels into her work every day. She was good enough to let Bare Necessities take a look inside her head to find out what makes these labels so fun, fashionable and flattering.
A study in contrasts, Abigail Posner is a perfect example of how a circuitous path can take you where you need to go in life just as well, if not better, than any straight shot.
Currently a director at Google, this Power Figure came up through advertising and finance after studying anthropology at Harvard. She also blogs about fashion and beauty from a cultural standpoint. An observant Jew, Abi powers down for the Sabbath, then powers back up to hit a fashion show or launch party after services end.
These conflicting worlds don’t rattle her a bit. Instead, they propel her. Abi takes whatever personality traits most of us would consider our weaknesses and harnesses their power to adapt herself to any job, in any field. She draws on what she knows. By embracing all the pieces that make us up, by leaning into the way they clash instead of constantly fighting to reconcile them, in this Bare Necessities exclusive, Abi proves that knowing what makes you different is the real secret to rising to the top.
For the coverage of a one-piece with the ease of two, we keep returning to tankinis.
We believe your swimsuits should always work hard for you; with tankinis, that’s super easy. You can choose from a menu of smart design details based on your needs. Here’s what to consider:
And when it comes to bottoms, you can play it almost as many different ways:
Now that you know your options, here are some of Bare Necessities buyer Megan Puma’s top tankinis of the season.
Sunny days are here again, and so are the latest swimsuits. While bikinis and tankinis will always have their place, at the start of the season we’re always partial to one-pieces that not only have some flair but also make our bodies look their best so we can feel confident getting out there.
The latest wave of one-pieces comes in fresh silhouettes and a broad range of coverage levels for way more options than your average maillot: “You can pull off a skimpy one-piece that’s super unique and cool-looking or a higher-coverage swim romper and look equally cute in either one,” says Bare Necessities swimwear buyer Megan Puma. Support and shaping are more common than ever, too.
One and done? Don’t mind if we do.
Liesl Goodman, head of design, is the creative mastermind behind lingerie and swimwear brand Elomi, which launched in 2008 to serve women with curves. Elomi really led the charge in offering gorgeous lingerie with excellent fit, support and design for full figures—hugely underserved back then and marginally improved since.
Right now, Elomi is all about cultivating an intimates wardrobe so fabulous, it effortlessly inspires its devotees to stay in style every day (motivation we could especially use lately).
In Bare Necessities’ exclusive interview with Liesl, find out what’s new and exciting for you this very moment.
It took getting divorced for Jill Waldbieser to remember that her boobs are far from her greatest asset. In this month’s “Life with the Girls,” Jill finds freedom from a culture that tends to worship women one body part at a time.
There’s a photo of me in one of my mom’s old albums that’s all tomboy: shaggy blonde pixie cut, scraped-up knees, missing tooth, no shirt. I remember running around like that a lot on humid summer nights, not a care in the world.
I also remember when my next-door neighbor told my mom I needed to start wearing a bra. I was in fourth grade, and despite a steady diet of Judy Blume paperbacks, had zero enthusiasm for bra shopping. I didn’t really develop until 16, but when I did, it was like my body had decided to make up for lost time. My boobs grew so fast, they left stretch marks in their wake. Seemingly overnight, I had to trade my cute, comfy triangle bralettes for heavy-duty underwire.
Grunge was in fashion, so I buried my chest under baggy T-shirts and let an unbuttoned flannel flap around for added distraction. The last thing I wanted was any visible signs of swelling or cleavage. What I had, in my mind, were twin burdens. They made me less aerodynamic, harder to dress, took a lot of time and money to deal with and, for all that, didn’t confer any special benefits that I’d noticed—most people would never have even guessed I was a D-cup.
That changed when I met my (now-ex) husband. He was a quintessential boob guy: the bigger, the better. He worshipped Pamela Anderson. There was no doubt which of my assets he liked best, and as someone who had never been happy with the size or shape of her breasts, that kind of appreciation was refreshing. It was a silver-ish lining when pregnancy swelled my cup size four letters (I didn’t even know anyone made an H) and trying to find a bikini meant a weekend-long deep-dive. The day my milk came in, as I stared at the mirror in stunned disbelief that they could get even bigger—cartoonishly rounder and perkier, too—he just grinned like he’d won the lottery.