Jameela Jamil on Her Swimsuit Shopping Tips
On Instagram, Jameela Jamil is incredibly candid—about dealing with stress, about her gripes with inconsistent sizing, about celebrities who peddle detox teas on their feeds. That frankness doesn’t end online, either. During a recent conversation, Jamil—a spokesperson for Aerie—explained how she prefers the pool to the beach because she “likes to be near a nice, clean toilet;” how annoyed she gets at swimsuits that “ride up your ass,” and how she’s come up with a hack to make up for the lack of storage space for snacks in women’s swimwear. (More on that in a bit.)
The actress’ partnership with Aerie makes perfect sense, given the body-positive movement she started on Instagram, iWeigh, as well as Aerie’s commitment to not retouching its images, which is what got The Good Place star, 33, interested in working with the company. “I thought that was so great and revolutionary, especially for a brand that does so much swimwear and underwear,” she says. “I went into the store a year before I met [anyone at the brand], and I noticed that all the photographs were of women of every color and age, of people with disabilities, of people who are cancer survivors—all modeling underwear and being seen as beautiful.”
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Jameela Jamil at an Aerie swim event in L.A.
Courtesy of American EagleShe’s since starred in an Aerie campaign of her own, and you can expect to see her in a lot of the brand’s swimsuits this summer. “I’m going to go to Italy on holiday, so I will be wearing something from the new collection when I get there,” she says.
Jamil already has a very specific swims hopping strategy. “I shop online, which is risky,” she says. “But I tend to go for a similar style everywhere that works for me [and where] I know my size. I order three sizes: the size I think I am, the size above, and the size below. Women’s sizing is still so insane. Men get inches—they know exactly what they’re buying, down to the very centimeter. And we’re told to vaguely guess.”
It also helps to know what you like, Jamil says: “I’m a high-waisted girl. I can use my briefs to store snacks and sunblock and sunglasses. They haven’t [figured] out [swimsuits with] pockets—maybe I just invented that. Have fucking pockets. It may not be flattering, but I’ve never really cared about flattering. So it looks like I’ve got lumps just all over my stomach, but I just use [that area] for storage.” (If there’s ever a Jameela Jamil x Aerie collaboration, we now know what to expect.)
Though swimwear in 2019 definitely favors the bold—top trends include neon, animal prints, and even sequins—Jamil prefers to keep hers much more minimal. “I spill food on myself a lot so I tend to go darker with my colors,” she says.
Those extra-strappy, complicated-looking bikinis aren’t her thing, either. “I’m very conscious of tan lines because I tan super fast. The ones with the weird cuts—like the ones they wear on Instagram—I can’t wear because I will look like a zebra,” she says. “I try to wear things that are keeping me unclothed in the areas that I will be unclothed in everyday life.”
It’s not that Jamil has totally ruled out these of-the-moment pieces. In fact, there’s one swim trend she’s super excited about—and will definitely be wearing—summer 2019. “I love the lemons—love, love, love the lemons,” she says, referring to a series of lemon-printed suits in Aerie’s latest collection. “I love fruit on anything. Fruit on any clothing or accessory. My earrings are always some sort of fruit, so I love that. I love the bold colors, and I think they’re bringing me into more colorful clothing.”
“I love coverups, too, because you need to be able to go into a restaurant after the pool or the beach. It’s nice to be able to throw that on for decency,” she adds
Unsurprisingly, Jamil’s approach to summer style is markedly different from that of her The Good Place character, Tahani—or, at least, how she imagines it. “Mine would be cheaper than hers, for sure. And I think it would be less extra,” she says. “I’m definitely more of a wallflower than she is. It would be distinctly more chill—less diamonds.” If you were to run into Tahani at the beach, Jamil guesses she’d probably be wearing a “Christian Dior ballgown, like she’s going to the Met. I see her in the sea in a gown.”