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5 Less Obvious Swim Trends For Summer
A guide to shopping five unconventional swim trends for summer 2025, inspired by celebrities like Meg Thee Stallion, Kylie Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Emma Corrin.
Each summer, we chart a course through swimwear, like pointing out how swim bottoms were getting bigger last summer and providing a how-to guide for bikini styling courtesy of our favorite social-media follows. This year, though, we’re taking the path less traveled towards beachwear nirvana and eschewing larger trends. A cursory look through our go-to high-street retailers reveal an emphasis on animal print, itty-bitty neutral two-pieces, and metallic embellishments, which we don’t really need to point out. Instead, might we suggest you revive some potentially bad-memory-provoking pieces that come from years past?
Without breaking a sweat, Kylie Jenner wore about a dozen pieces of swim on a tropical vacation and gave us something to think about in terms of the unconventional. Below, we’ve rounded up five swim trends that are still bubbling up to ensure you won’t show up to your hotel’s pool this summer and find yourself in the same cut-out one-piece as someone else.
The First Resuscitated Trend: Monokinis...
Jenner decamped to Turks and Caicos for a little R&R between the Met Gala and being the best courtside plus-one for Timothée Chalamet, and set up a few trends for the summer to come. First up is the monokini: Hers is vintage Roberto Cavalli, but you can recreate the optical-illusion energy with a massive cutout (or six).
...And Tankinis, Too
The swimsuit you wore for your fifth grade class trip to the town pool is unfortunately back. There’s actually cute options, though, with form-fitting cami styles or more bandana-esque styles like Bella Hadid’s version made in collaboration with Frankies Bikinis.
Metallics Have Their Day In The Sun
It’s another Hot Girl Summer (when is it not?), and Megan Thee Stallion is here to provide some form-fitting options on a budget via Walmart. Elsewhere, Kylie Jenner wore a one-shoulder Cult Gaia bikini in gold and it immediately sold out; try out more matte options in bronze or silver, or go full gold.
The Preppy One-Piece
It’s feeling preppy in here, and with Emma Corrin’s Dries Van Noten swimsuit worn in Ibiza, it’s easier than ever to slip into a country-club-approved one-piece and forget about fussy tan lines. 
The Questionably Comfortable Swim Short
Another Kylie-instigated trend (sorry, we don’t make the rules!) that’s also been bubbling up at her sister’s brand, Skims, and other retailers like Gimaguas, who made Kylie’s studded boyshorts. (Turns out studs are in on swim, too.) Try a longer pair like these Soffe-indebted gray ones, or go for a more fitted, ‘50s feel.
