Did bikini bottoms get smaller this summer? The short answer? Yes. (Get it? “Short”?)
You may have noticed it on swimwear-heavy TV such as “Bachelor in Paradise” and “Love Island,” where the cheekies got cheekier and the number of thongs crept up. (Get it? “Crept up”?)
Searches for “Love Island bikini” on Google spiked in early July. And on beaches and at pools, smaller bottoms have spilled out into the general population. (Get it? “Spilled out?” I’ll stop.)
Thongs are, perhaps unsurprisingly, not for everyone. But some swimwear designers report that there are customers who will wear nothing else.
When Hayley Sagar launched Onewith swimwear in 2021, she offered classic medium-coverage bikini bottoms. After her designs began to circulate on social media, she heard from customers who wanted more teenie-weenie in their bikini.
“The only comment we got was, ‘Thongs, thongs, thongs, thongs, where are your thongs?’” Sagar said.
I hope the smaller swimsuit trend continues for both women and men. I also hope seeing men in thongs, and possibly g-strings, will become more mainstream over time. I can’t wait to get to a beach wearing thongs and g-strings. 2025 was a bust for me.
I spent a week on St.Pete beaches this summer. I was disappointed that I was the only guy in a small bikini but thongs and very cheeky suits were the norm for women. I had no negative responses to my suit and several positive ones. What I noticed is the cheeky suits were not limited to younger women. Quite a few my age, 60s, wore cheeky suits. They looked fine. People are still too judgmental that you have to have perfect figure to wear them. I’m in good shape but not young. Wearing minimal swimwear motivates me to stay fit. I still don’t understand why the majority of men wear knee length shorts. Once I began wearing bikinis, thongs, and strings, I never wanted to wear anything else.
I understand why guys are hesitant to try them. Social stigma, and being comfortable with showing so much however the older I get the more perplexed I am with swim trunks. I was laying on the beach yesterday looking around and most of the women were in tangas and skimpier bikinis (a few thongs) and every guy was in shorts. Having not worn shorts to the beach in over a decade I was just wondering how such an unpractical garment was so ubiquitous. With the exception of surfing and not having to do much when leaving the beach, there is no practical reason for shorts being the default.
Like this article stated, almost all the ladies are wearing tinier and tinier bikinis and I see a lot more thongs than I used to but in the mainstream, mens swimwear still hasn’t followed that trend at all.
Women surf in bikinis all the time, so arguably board shorts for board sports aren’t even the right call. I’m in a place where you need at least a shortie wetsuit all summer in most spots, so I haven’t run the experiment.
I’d imagine a thong or bikini is more practical for the action in surfing as it significantly more comfortable for the wide range of motion. However board shorts are specifically made so when you’re sitting on your surfboard, the wax on the board doesn’t pull all the hair out of the back of your leg. Sure you can shave it, but board shorts got their start as a way to keep your legs from getting waxed or board rash.
Im very often the only man in a thong as well, never had a bad comment. I have had positive comments from women, no I’m nothing to look at, they just like them on men.
