Summer of ’83
Summer of ’83. I had just graduated from Barnard College and was working in New York City before heading north for graduate school in Cambridge that September. The warm days of summer had just begun and weekends at Jones Beach beckoned. Before I even got my first pay check, I knew I had to have this bathing suit by Norma Kamali. I was always more comfortable in a one piece suit. Bathing suits are for swimming in after all, right?
This simple black number with its modest front and oh so risqué low-cut back and high-cut legs was and is still the way I like to do sexy — classic, elegant and never obvious but always with a twist. And yet I could swim, dive, and flip without ever worrying about escaping bits. I paid $80 — which back then was an extraordinary amount of money for someone on a student’s budget. It was probably my first but definitely not my last heart over budget purchase. After 35 years and many black and navy maillots later, it’s still my favourite — the one I remember most fondly.
