The Tankini Returns: Swim's Most Underrated Shape
Something quietly radical is happening in swim. The tankini — once shorthand for compromise, the shape your mum reached for when she wanted "something more covered" — is back, and it's been completely rewired. The new tankini swimwear isn't apologetic. It isn't a fallback. It's the piece a generation raised on layering, mixing, and dressing for themselves is reaching for first. Coverage is no longer the opposite of confidence. It's a creative choice — and at Mahéquline, our Copenhagen studio has been watching this shift with interest, because it's exactly the kind of design thinking we've always built around.
The tankini isn't returning the way it left. It's returning sharper, softer, more considered — designed to be styled, not settled for.
Why tankini swimwear is having its moment
Look at the way the next generation actually gets dressed. Nothing is bought as a complete look. A vintage tee meets a tailored skirt. A grandfather shirt knots over a slip. The rules are personal, the silhouettes are mixed, and the goal is never to disappear into a category. Swim was the last frontier — the place where you were still expected to pick a side. Bikini or one-piece. Show or cover. The tankini quietly dismantles that binary.
What's changed is the design intent. The old tankini hid the body. The new one frames it. Cut lines have moved. Fabrics have weight and memory. Tops sit where you actually want them — skimming, not swallowing. And because tankini swimwear is, by nature, a two-piece, it slots straight into the way women are already shopping: separately, intentionally, and with the freedom to remix.
Coverage on your own terms
The phrase that keeps coming up in our studio is "coverage on your own terms." Some days you want a high neckline because you're walking the harbour and the light is sharp. Some days you want a swim top you can wear under linen trousers as an outfit under your outfit. Some days you just want to eat lunch without performing the act of being on holiday. The tankini answers all of it, without making the answer feel like a concession.
Our Cioccolato Blu Tankini Top was designed in exactly this spirit. The colour — a deep, slow chocolate with a blue undertone — was chosen to flatter every skin, the way a good leather jacket does. The cut elongates without exposing. The fabric holds its shape in salt water, in chlorine, on the eighth wear of the summer. It's a piece built to be felt, not just worn — the kind of swim top you reach for the way you reach for a favourite t-shirt, because it makes the rest of getting dressed easier.
Mix and match, by design
Here's where the new tankini becomes properly interesting. Pair the Cioccolato Blu top with our Cioccolato Blu Triangle Bikini Bottom for a tonal set that reads as one fluid piece — coverage on top, ease below. Or break the rules entirely and layer it under the Amalfitana Flo Bikini Skirt for a poolside look that walks straight into a beach bar without changing.
This is what we mean when we say mix and match by design. Every Mahéquline piece is built to live in conversation with the others — across our swimwear and into the worlds you actually move through. A tankini top isn't a single-purpose object anymore. It's a styling tool. Knot a white shirt over it for dinner. Slip it under high-waisted denim for a weekend in the city. Wear it on its own with the matching brief and let the cut do the work.
Because everything is designed to be remixed, you stop replacing pieces. You return to them. That's the quiet point of how we build at Mahéquline — designed by women, for women, and made to last beyond a single summer's algorithm.
The Copenhagen approach to tankini swimwear
There's a reason Copenhagen keeps showing up in conversations about how the next generation dresses. The city's design language is restraint with personality — clean shapes, considered colour, nothing decorative for the sake of it. We bring that sensibility to tankini swimwear because the category needs it. Too much swim is loud where it should be quiet, and quiet where it should be confident. We design the other way around. The cut speaks. The colour breathes. The styling possibilities are wide open.
Our pieces sit alongside our lingerie in the same wardrobe, in the same drawer, in the same logic. An outfit under your outfit. Something you wear because of how it makes you move through the day, not because anyone else is going to see it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the tankini actually flattering, or is it just modest?
The new tankini isn't about hiding — it's about framing. A well-cut tankini top, like the Cioccolato Blu, lengthens the torso, defines the waist, and lets you choose where the eye goes. Modesty is a side effect, not the brief.
Can I mix a tankini top with different bottoms?
Absolutely — that's the whole point. Mahéquline pieces are designed to be remixed, so a tankini top works with matching briefs, a bikini skirt, or a contrasting bottom from another set. Build the silhouette that suits the day.
How do I care for Mahéquline swimwear so it lasts?
Rinse in cool fresh water after every wear, skip the wash cycle, and lay flat to dry away from direct sun. Our fabrics are chosen for memory and resilience, but a little ritual goes a long way — these are pieces you'll want to keep returning to.
If the tankini is finally back on your radar, take your time with it. Try it tonal, try it mixed, try it under something unexpected. The best pieces in your wardrobe are the ones that grow with you — and we'd love for ours to be among them.