Whatever suits you: The season's hottest swimwear

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BY KATHRYN WEXLER

Unless they're saggy, baggy or threadbare, there's little chance someone will give your bikini the once-over and conclude, "Mon Dieu, how oh-so-last-year."

Still, if you're the type that wants to look like you just left the department store for the beach, here's what designers and buyers say is hot this summer.

_Buy it brown.

Call it chocolate, cappuccino or espresso.

Brown's the thing - from Isaac Mizrahi at Target to Diane von Furstenberg at Saks Fifth Avenue.

"I know it sounds boring, but it looks wonderful and rich and sophisticated," said Stephanie Solomon, fashion director of women's ready-to-wear for Bloomingdale's.

_Minimal and neutral.

Colors cooled off this spring, and the sobering trend has permeated swimwear too.

In fact, it's not brown that's been lifted from nature's palette; it's the entire spectrum of the natural and the cool.

"It's very modern, minimalist looking," said Mariela Rovito, president of Eberjey, a lingerie and swimwear company in Miami whose bikinis are sold locally at Ritz-Carlton hotels and the Miami Beach boutique Caterina Lucci.

"For the most part, it's cool colors and prints in light surf, natural and black," Rovito said.

_Tortoise touches and nature's jewelry.

Not real tortoise, which would be illegal - hello.

We're talking about the plastic kind used for bathing suit flourishes this summer.

J. Crew, for instance, is offering a tiny bikini bottom with faux tortoise rings at the hips for $40 and a matching top for $42. Macy's wants to sell you a Christina Coconut Grove Tankini Set with imitation tortoise accents on the halter straps for $82.

Also at Macy's, swimsuit flourishes that look like things you find on a beach.

"They're not so much like last year's sparkly embellishments," said Andrea Page, Macy's VP of division merchandise manager. "They're coconut shell or wood embellishments at the strap or on the bust or around the halter."

_Mismatched beauties.

Rosa Cha, the Brazilian swimsuit designer with a Miami shop, has long combined different prints in a single suit, rather than sticking with the matchy-matchy formula of yesterday.

Now compatriot designer Fabiana Ferreira has produced a mismatched bikini for this summer - and it's her bestseller this season, said her U.S. distributor, Karen Kramser, based in West Palm Beach, Fla.

"It's done really well," Kramser said.

The suit has a big floral design with a cream background on the top and a bud print against a black background on the bottom, both with orange crocheted fringes (and just like in ready-to-wear, crochet is another trend unto itself these days). Called "The Patch," the bikini sells for about $105.

But you don't need a designer to figure out how to mix it up. Go through your old suits and come up with some dynamic combos yourself.

_Structural wonders.

You can't always tell a pricey swimsuit from a discount one, especially since so many of the prints look the same. But every now and then a bathing suit comes out with so much punch, it looks like a million dollars.

La Perla is best known for its exquisite lingerie. But the Italian design house is a master at bathing suits, too, because it knows how to play with negative space.

This particular stunner is a macrame bikini whose parts are connected with a swath down the center of the torso. It comes in yellow and brown, and is sold for about $613.

"The idea comes from the wish to develop the concepts typical of the corsetry and try to mix them with the shapes and the fabrics of beachwear," La Perla fashion coordinator Anna Masotti, whose parents own the company, explained in an e-mail.

If La Perla isn't in your budget, look for other suits with asymmetrical or quasi-one-piece shapes. Swimsuit designer Red Carter knows about fabulous cut-outs too, and his prices are lower. Find his stock at major department stores.

_Ditch the trends.

Take a cue from designer Sara Chiaramonte of Tashia London and go bright - way bright.

Sold at select Neimans and other stores, Tashia packs an explosion of color into every piece this summer as is its signature.

"Prints are so strong in England now, and Tashia is about color," Chiaramonte said from her store in London. "I do completely see that the trend has moved on from being colorful, but I haven't paid too much attention to date."

Nor must you.

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