Do you have smaller bust? Being less endowed can sometimes be a challenge, especially around the swimsuit season.
Wearing bikinis or one piece on the beach can often leads women to feel self conscious about having a smaller chest.
That is why finding the bathing suits to flatter and enhance the flat chest is critical in the swimsuit season.
Typically, women with smaller chest tend to be thin, and a lot of them have a toned body. They typically look quite athletic and fit, regardless of their height. If your goal is to make your breasts appear fuller, that is totally feasible through the right bathing suits.
Table of Contents
Styling Goal
- The ideal swimsuits for your body generally will have ties, ruffles or bows to create the illusion of fuller chest.
- Wear bathingsuits with designs like ruching or gathering to add volume to your chest.
- Deep V or nude color swimsuits will also make you look and feel feminine.
- Go for brighter colors and busier prints to I will get into a lot more details later in this post on what specific designs will create the illusion of full chests, but in general, those are the designs that visually create the illusion of curves and balance out your athletic shape.
You can go with either one piece or bikinis. One is not always better than the other in terms of looking good on a smaller chest. What I do want to mention is that as bikinis can be bought as separates, they can be easily mixed and matched using design, pattern and color to create that perfect combination for women with small bust.
I have a youtuebe video where I demonstrate some of my swimsuit collections.
In the next section, I will give you the full list of swimsuit styles, including both one piece and separates, that look good on flat chest. You may not realize it, but some of these styles actually look much better on you than someone with large breasts. Meanwhile, if you do want to create some feminine curves, some of these swim suits can also create the illusion of bigger bust.
If you have small bust, I highly recommend my other post on “21 Best Ways to Dress Flat Chest“.
Wrap style
A few years ago, I first noticed the wrap swimsuits from L Space. I have found them super flattering on women with smaller chest, because they look effortlessly feminine. So, I personally own 5 of them in different patterns and colors!
Nowadays you can find many brands that make this style of swimsuits. They can come in both bikinis and one pieces. Regardless, they can make you look super feminine.
If you haven’t tried, I highly recommend them from first hand experience. Wrap style swimsuits are really a great option for women with smaller chest, because they can create the illusion of curves, even if you don’t naturally have much.
Push up bikini top
The easiest solution is to go with a swim top with padding. It goes without saying padding will lift your boobs from underneath and push them upwards, giving you a fuller cup. So, bathing suit with padding can help to give you a little bit of cleavage, even if you are flat.
We all know how helpful pushup bras are to help us create the cleavage. The same applies to the bikini tops with push up pads.
The secret lies in the shapes of the push up pads. Because they are molded thicker at bottom and thinner on top, this shape will push your breast tissues forward and make them appear fuller.
Like I said, it is not necessary to create cleavage. But, in case you are wondering how you can create cleavage if you don’t naturally have one, then let’s start with the easy one.
Nude color swimsuit
I stumbled upon these and discovered they are extremely flattering, not so much about creating cleavage, but because they make you feel sexy.
When you wear a swimsuit similar to your skin color, whether one piece or bikini, it has that sensual vibe, regardless of how big your breasts are. That will you feel more confident about your body shape on the beach!
Smocked swimsuit
If you are not familiar with the term “smocked”, let me first explain to you what they are.
Smocked clothing (not only swimsuits) have fabrics taken and folded into an accordion fashion, which are known as pleats sometimes. Then, a string is taken and sewn through these pleats in various areas in order to hold them into place.
With a smocked design, the swimsuit creates the illusion of fullness in front of the chest.
Bustier style
Are you thinking corset styles are the privilege of well-endowed women? Not really.
Suits that have a bit of boning can add contours, which is flattering for women with smaller chest too. Those with adjustable straps work particularly well, because you can shorten the straps to further hoist up the cleavage.
Cut-outs
The cut-outs work like magic on women with smaller chests! These are one of the designs that look better than someone like you than someone with a full bust. The cut-outs have a sexy vibe, regardless of your breast size.
Cut-outs can be on one piece, or bikinis. This design can create the illusion of a fuller chest quite naturally.
Deep V neck
This may sound counterintuitive to you at first. Doesn’t deep v neck make it too obvious that your chest is small?
Well, you might be thinking that, but the truth is the deep V neck look super chic on someone with a flat chest. See this example from famous Kate Moss!
Bandeau
Like I mentioned earlier, women with a boyish shape can enjoy wearing slinky swimsuit styles that don’t always work well for curvier ladies who need a little extra support. For example, the bandeau-style swimsuits work on your body like a charm!
The bandeau sometimes is also referred to as the tube style. Regardless of the name, the design is heaven-sent for smaller chest women.
What’s worth mentioning is bandeau is a pretty broad category of bikini tops. So, some of the other styles I will mention later in this post can fall under this category, but with various design details which can enhance smaller chest.
Busy patterns
The reason busy patterns look flattering on smaller chests is that they create the illusion of volume. So, when you wear a swimsuit with busy patterns, they can add a little enhancement to your chest without any added material.
Off the shoulder
This is another style that works wonderfully on smaller chests! Off-the-shoulder can make your breasts appear fuller because of the additional coverage on your shoulders. Those with flounce works especially well.
I had mentioned earlier that some pear shaped women also have smaller chest. If that is you, then this swimsuit style is heaven-sent for you, because they also broaden your shoulders to balance out the bottom heavy shape of the pear!
Balcony tops
Just as the name suggests, these look like the shape of a balcony. You might be familiar with balcony bras, and these are the same concept. This type of bikini or tankini top is designed with full movement and cleavage in mind, Because of the underwire, it creates a structure for the shape of your breasts, which are ideal for smaller chests.
Tussled bikinis
Tussles in front of your chest add so much volume that they can give the illusion of a larger chest. Again, this is yet another design that is almost the privilege of women with smaller chests!
Ruffled bathing suits
Similar to the last style, swimsuits with ruffles in front of the chest can make your chests appear fuller, thanks to the additional volume. You could go with one tier of ruffle for a bikini top, or even tiered ruffles in a one piece or tankini. Either way, ruffles will not disappoint!
Gathered bikini tops
A gathered bikini top is an easy way to add a little bit of volume to your chest. This kind of swimsuit fall under the bandeau category, but because of the gathering design, they can especially flatter women with flat chest.
Cross cross one piece
The cross cross adds dimension to the swimsuit, which in turn creates the illusion of fuller chest and more curves for you.
Front tie bikinis
I noticed this swimming suit style a few years ago. The reason this is flattering on a smaller chest is that the tie creates the illusion of fullness. Depending on your preference, you can experiment with tying the knot tighter or looser, according to your body shape. My personal experience is the tighter it is, the more cleavage it creates!
One shoulder swimsuits
The one-shoulder design on swimwear is very flattering to women with smaller chests because they can distract away from your bust. This can work well both on one piece and on bikini tops.
Normally, the one shoulder will draw attention to above your chest, which will naturally make people notice less about your smaller bust.
Ring bikini tops
This is a super sexy design that is most flattering to women with smaller chests. It falls under the bigger category of bandeau style, but the ring in the front adds a sensual appeal to your swimsuit in a very tasteful way.
Bow front bikinis
Similar to bikinis with a tie, bikinis with bows in the front of the chest are also super flattering if you have a flat chest. As you can see, the model has small bust, but the bows have made her chests look much more enhanced.
Bright colors
Okay, you may have noticed that dark colors have the shrinking effect, while bright colors have an expanding effect. You can use this strategy in choosing the right swimsuits if you have smaller chest. Opt for bold colors and bright prints and patterns if you want your chest to look fuller.
Now that you know the best swimsuits for flat chest, but here is the often searched question:
What are considered small breasts
There is no standard answer to this question, but generally speaking, A cup is considered flat.
Is B cup considered small?
Well, it depends on who you ask. There are many women with B cups who do not feel like they have flat chest. On the other hand, some might consider anything under C cup is considered small.
So, my point is, what matters is YOUR own opinion!
Dress your body as a whole package
To be able to choose the perfect bikini for smaller chest, it helps to understand your body shape. The reason is each body type has a set of body traits that tend to come in a package. So, addressing an individual trait such as flat chest works less effectively than addressing the whole package by drawing attention to the areas considered your assets and pulling attention away from what you don’t want others to notice.
The body types that tend to have small chest are mostly rectangle shape (also known as banana body shape) or inverted triangle body type. The most obvious examples are the runway models! They tend to have one of these two body types. Many models have straight up and down body types, which means their bust are typically smaller than B cup.
Of course, that is not absolute, because I also know pear shaped with flat chest.
If you already know what body type you are, then I highly recommend you also read my post on “Bathingsuits for Body Types”.
Conclusions
I understand you might sometimes feel self-conscious about having a smaller chest. That is quite normal because almost everyone has something about their body that she feels insecure about at times.
Our society, through social media, TV shows, and magazines, have been advocating a popular culture where having a bigger chest seems to be something to be admired. That is often why women with flat bust sometimes wish their breasts look fuller. This feeling is especially accentuated around the swimsuit season. Because when we are showing so much of our body in those tiny swimwear, we are even easier to feel like our least favorite body feature is being put to the center of attention…
Hey, what I want you to realize is, if you are less-endowed, you may actually want to consider yourself lucky! This may sound counter-intuitive to you, but I have very often heard from women with big bust who are struggling to find clothes to fit them.
Having a smaller chest, on the other hand, makes it easier to find clothes that fit you. When it comes to bathing suits, women with flat chest CAN pretty much wear any style!
If there is only thing you remember after reading this post, I want you to remember that the best swimsuits for you are the ones that make you feel good about your body!
