What’s Missing From This Picture?

In bikinis, less has always been more. But no more. After all, swimsuit bottoms broke the great belly-button barrier two decades ago. So designers have decided it’s high time the old high-cut waist was brought back.

Now, this should be welcome news to the 99% of American women whose figures are either (a) less than perfect or (b) practically perfect but they fret about them anyway. “Most women have a little paunch there,” says Bullock’s swimwear buyer Leslie Rothman. “So this look is better for them. It’s slenderizing.”

Rothman says swimwear manufacturers particularly strong on the high-waisted bikini for spring include Anne Cole, Rose Marie Reid and Cole of California.

If you’re worried about these new suits being too modest and demure, please note that, while the silhouette covers up the hips and waist, its sleek high cut also reveals a lot of leg.

We’ve come a long way from “I Dream of Jeanie,” when Barbara Eden’s hip-hugging harem pants had to be carefully engineered to cover her belly button. No one today thinks an exposed navel is at all shocking. Maybe that’s why it’s time for a return to bikinis that conceal as well as reveal. After years of letting it all hang out, there’s a definite allure to keeping something--even if it’s only a belly button--in.