By
Bella Druckman,
a writer at the Strategist covering Gen Z shopping habits and fashion.
She joined the Strategist in 2024. Previously, she wrote about gifts at Shop Today.
Until this summer, I was under the impression that all women’s swimsuits were padded — or at least lightly lined — in the chest area. The swimsuits I’d been wearing for the last several years (mostly full-coverage ones from Aerie) had removable pads that concealed even the slightest outline of a nipple. But this summer, I wanted some new swimsuits, and while I perused (and tested some suits for the Strategist Swimsuit Project), I came to the realization that I had been living under a very well-padded rock. Unpadded swimsuits — and the nipple-shaped protrusions that come with them — are the status quo in 2026.
