Ranty Rant: Why The Bleep Are Swimsuits So Expensive?!?

So maybe it’s been a while since I’ve bought a swimsuit, but what in the heck happened with the prices? Today I went online to buy my first swimsuit in over ten years and I was expected to pay maybe $30 – $40 for something cute, and beach-worthy…instead, most of the suits ranged from at least $100 – $200…and more!

Seriously, are these suckers made of gold or something? Also, if they ARE made of gold, won’t they make us sink? I’m just saying, I don’t know what kind of animal spandex comes from, but I’m thinking it must be going extinct. No, no, I know it’s entirely a synthetic material, but that’s what boggles my mind even more. If it’s synthetic, shouldn’t the price have gone down over the years, not up? I mean, there are improvements on manufacturing and production daily, so how in the world can they justify charging more than my first car payment for what’s basically glorified underwear?

I’m not meaning to sound like a kaurmudgened or anything, but the prices blew me away. Not only that, but the selection at most of the sites I visited was abysmal. I’m a bigger girl…upwards of, eh, 3xish? My badonkadonk can be seen for a few blocks and if I ever went running without a bra on I’d definitely end up with two black eyes. So there is a lot of me, I get that…but why is it all of these places think I want to wear a skirt instead of a swimsuit, or even a bikini. My last swimsuit was a bikini. And I LOVED it! Yet, almost every single suit I looked at today had a skirt wrapped around it like I’m ashamed of my hips and booty or something. And maybe that’s the style, and I just missed the memo or something, but dang! I worked hard for this figure and I want to display it with pride.

I did finally find a suit. And it’s adorable (thank you, Torrid!), but the whole experience was a little frustrating. Okay, a LOT frustrating. I mean, I was at Walmart with my bestie earlier and we saw a whole bin of bikinis for $2.50 each. I get that they probably won’t last a lifetime, but still. And if the argument is that more fabric is used for the plus size suits, shouldn’t ours only cost twice or three times as much? If they can make and sell a bikini for a size 12 for $2.50, surely it MUST seem absurd to someone other than me that the suits in my size are $100. I mean, that’s one hell of a markup, no?

So I guess what it comes down to is this: I understand economics to understand what they’re doing, but that doesn’t mean I like it. I get that stores can charge what people are willing to pay, and that since there are less places that sell decent looking plus size suits, they can charge even more because the demand is higher, but that doesn’t mean it’s right. It shouldn’t have to cost forty times as much for me to go to the pool as it costs my bestie. And yes, I did find a cute suit and it was slightly less than the $100 average, but how much am I really going to be able to love it knowing how I feel right now?