Cutouts And Paste-ons In The Desert Sun

The new swimsuits for this resort season are made of just enough red to stop traffic by a desert swimming pool or on a Caribbean beach, the other necessary ingredient in the design being sun-tanned skin, and a lot of it. There probably is more material used in the suits in these pages than in any bikini, but the way they have been cut away and stretched around the body's contours you'd never know it. Some of the paring away is asymmetrical. The suit in the photograph on the cover, worn by Marilyn Tindall, is made of Dacron knit. It would be a classic bikini if it did not stretch down to a button on one side. And the suit that Marilyn wears at right in Arizona's Apache Lake canyon would be a simple, classic maillot—if it were not sculpted away to its barest essentials. There are other artistic cutouts in the swimsuits on the following pages, and some artistic paste-ons as well. With the paste-on suits, the beginnings of a new teen-age fad, each girl can decorate her own body with butterflies, flowers, stars and hearts—a sort of temporary tattoo.

All of these swimsuit photographs were taken in the desert and canyon country that surrounds Scottsdale, Ariz., a burgeoning resort area described by Liz Smith in an article beginning on page 36.

Perched on an Apache Lake boulder (left), Lynn Brophy displays a suit that is collarbone-high, hipbone-low. Framed by reflected desert palms, Marilyn Tindall wears a bikini with its top cut away in graceful curves.

Over and around the barest vinyl bikini Erin Gray has decorated her body with fluorescent paste-on tattoos. They come in a kit that also contains surgical glue. Other paste-ons go way out-like the cartoon of acrobatic surfers at right. A word of caution-when the paste-ons come off after a day in the sun, the design lingers on.

WHERE TO BUY
The swimsuit worn by Marilyn Tindall on the cover was designed by Bill Blass for Roxanne and is of 100% stretch Dacron knit. It is $28 at Bonwit Teller, New York City; Bullock's Wilshire, Los Angeles; Goldwater's, Phoenix; Martha's, Palm Beach, Fla. On the opening color page: Marilyn's maillot, designed by Rikki for Sport Trio, is of Helanca nylon stretch fabric. It is $27 at Henri Bendel, New York City. On the following page, Lynn Brophy wears a swimsuit with high square-cut neckline and pared-away back. It is $28 at Bergdorf Goodman, New York City. It was designed by Rikki for Sport Trio, as was the sculptured bikini worn by Marilyn on the next page; $23 at Gidding-Jenny, Cincinnati; Sakowitz, Houston; all Saks Fifth Avenue stores. The vinyl swimsuit worn by Erin Gray on the page opposite this is by Tiger Morse. The cutout vinyl decals come packaged separately with a tube of surgical adhesive for easy, nonirritating gluing to the skin. The swimsuit is $25, the packet with cutouts is $2.50. The vinyl swimsuit worn by Erin (above) has a surfing cartoon attached to its strapless bra. It is $23. Both swimsuits and cutouts are at Angie's, Chicago; Bergdorf Goodman, New York City; Joseph Magnin, San Francisco; Tiger Morse's Teeny Weenie Shop, New York City.