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Skin is in: as sales of thong bikinis rise, is body confidence also growing?

A Sydney council’s ban on ‘inappropriate’ swimwear stirs a wider debate over complex feelings about women’s bottoms

Meanwhile, a thongkini has become the default uniform on the reality show Love Island and is regularly championed by celebrities including the gen Z model Bella Hadid, the singer and size inclusivity advocate Lizzo and “midlifer” Jennifer Lopez. The author, who has tracked the cultural history of the derriere, says people “generally have a lot of complicated feelings about the butt – it is a place associated with sex and defecation and has long been tied up in questions of racial and gender categorisation and hierarchies”. Photograph: Chris Rout/AlamyTwenty-eight years after Tom Ford made headlines for sending a g-string brief down the Gucci catwalk, you can pick up a similar style as a pack of five in Asda.

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