Vilebrequin

The annual swimsuit hunt used to mean a day at the mall and a lot of maybe-I-just-won’t-go-to-the-beach-this-year. The Vilebrequin boutique in Singapore runs the other way around: you try the cuts until one fits, and then you choose the pattern you want it made in. I have a large bust and a small bottom, so being able to size the top and the bottom separately is the difference between buying a bikini and settling for one. Mine came printed with a sonar map.

The prices are not small — women’s suits start around $120 and men’s run up to $1,000. What that buys is pieces hand-cut so the patterns line up at the seams, and a mesh lining in the men’s trunks soft enough to matter, which they will repair free if it ever tears. I lived in the $250 linen boyfriend shirt for the better part of a month, on the beach and off it, and it’s on my summer packing list too. Not everything landed. I wanted a smaller cut on the bikini bottoms, and Chris’s anchor-print shirt is the same length in an extra small as in an extra large. His trunks, though, are poppy red with a lobster called Omar embroidered on them, $360 — you won’t see another pair on the beach.