Maybe in the US, but that's not really the case here. Come the summer months and the shops here ae filled with 2-pieces.
Sorry to hear you don't have swim specialty stores, but then it might be a really good business opportunity for someone in the UK.
Most swim stores tend to carry Speedo one-pieces which are usually associated with professional swimmers. The designs tend to be functional rather than pretty, unsurprisingly, as they are aimed at those who have a specific interest.
I'm not really surprised that the UK doesn't have specialty swimwear shops or that the one pieces they have are more functinal rather than fashionable. I guess the UK being further North of the equator than say USA or the mediteranean countries, I associate it with being less hospitable for swimming/water sports in general, which I also associate with no need for swimwear shops--maybe just catalogue purchasing of such things. Obviously that is an incorrect notion and one I've pulled off the tele! (I've not been fortunate enough to visit the UK yet....)
But I was also kind of going with the USA flag motiff and thinking that she'd probably bought it in her travels this past year--
I strongly doubt that she would have bought a USA flag bikini anywhere outside the US! Or, Fergie could have even picked it up in her travels, as a gift or souvenir.
My impression is that she is young, and despite being well traveled she is quite naive. I think that when the press dogs out her sister, and mummy comes running to defend saying that the press is wrong wrong wrong, that Eug might just think her mother is right right right--when the truth lies in the middle.
Both parties are right actually:
Fergie says there is nothing wrong with her daughters' weight and health--correct! Bea and Eug are perfectly fine the way they are and are apparently healthy as.
Others say that the York sisters are a bit bulgy and 'soft' and could use some fashion tips and advice--correct! Bea and Eug both wear things that are unsuited to their weight and figures, and obviously have no idea what they wear well, what looks good on them.
With todays teens being as conscious of themselves and their looks as they are (not the same as self-conscious) (aren't they? they seem to be!) you would think that both girls would be extremely aware of how clothes appear on them.
Perhaps they are a little bit more full of themselves and their social standing than they say they are; that because they are royal and princesses that they can do no wrong and commit no faux pas? That they can wear what they want and nobody will say anything because after all they ARE technically in line for the throne?
Not saying they are thinking this way; just posing another direction of my perception.
However, if Little Star is correct (no doubt she is!), and it's just assumed that every woman will wear a 2 piece, and then every woman actually
does wear a 2 piece, then the York girls really have nothing else to go on, right? They are doing what everyone else in society does and accepts, so in reality they know no better, despite be well traveled and socially educated.
People in general are sheep, and will follow the rest of the flock. If the first one jumps over a cliff, the rest of them will too.