Speedo is launching a new swimming costume that is not only created by Nottingham people but also designed around Nottingham women's bodies. RIAH MATTHEWS discovers more.

MOST women know that the joy of booking a holiday is often followed by the dread of finding the right swimwear.

We all come in different shapes and sizes and it can be difficult to find one that's flattering and feels comfortable.

With this in mind, Speedo has created the Sculpture Shapeline swimming costume that they claim sculpts the waist, tummy, hips and bust and comes in ''real'' women's sizes.

The Nottingham-based company has spent the last three years researching the body shapes of over 5,400 women in order to create the swimming costume.

They also held workshops with 250 Notts women about how wearing swimwear makes them feel and even chose three lucky local ladies to model the costumes.

They found that over the past 50 years the average body profile of women has dramatically changed – for example women today are on average 1½ inches taller, have an extra 1½ inches on their bust and have gained 5½ lbs in weight.

Jason Rance, Speedo's vice-president of marketing, is excited about designing for "real 21st century women".

He says: "Traditional swimwear has always been based around design rules from the 1950s, predominantly around an hourglass shape, which we know that very few women are.

"This got us thinking about how we could revolutionise female swimwear by using the innovations we've applied to competition swimming, and really look at the problems of women's anxiety around wearing swimwear."

Although Speedo is well known for designing performance swimwear like the LZR, which was credited with giving Rebecca Adlington an edge at the last Olympics, they hope that the Sculpture will help non-athletic women feel good in their swim-suits too.

The same team that worked on the LZR have spent years refining the Sculpture's design at their head office in Bobbers Mill.

Laura Rattray, Aqualab team's applied innovation designer, explains: "Our aim was to design a suit for every woman. To get a suit that fits you perfectly, gives you a tailored fit and is as near to a made-to-measure suit that you buy off the peg.

"It's almost like choosing separates within one swimming suit – so you can choose your bra size and your hip size."

Their research has resulted in Speedo reclassifying female body shapes into three categories - bottom hourglass, hourglass and top hourglass.

They chose three women with these shapes to head up their new advertising campaign and instead of using professional models, Speedo stuck to their roots and chose three local ladies.

Tonia Brundell, 34, from Sherwood, Joy Parkes, 58, from Ilkeston and Sue Crighton, 40, from Woodthorpe are the faces and bodies of Speedo Sculpture.

They were measured for their new Speedo Sculpture costumes to assess whether they needed a costume style which would smooth their waist, shape their bust or sculpt their tummy and hips.

Once the style had been chosen, the costumes were then supplied, not only in body size but also in bust size.

In effect they were measured for the costumes in much the same way as being measured for a bra, just taking into account their hip size and body length too.

The costume is only available in dedicated Speedo shops and on their website, and costs £100. The cost is a lot more than most women would normally pay for a swimming costume but Jason Rance believes it's worth it.

He says: "We believe you cannot put a price on confidence and the costume offers a premium, unique product, using the highest quality materials, which celebrates and enhances every shape and ensures women are confident in their swimwear."

The costumes are available in sizes 10-20 with bra cup sizes ranging from B to G and back sizes from 30 to 42.

Speedo has also created an online video so women can measure themselves to find out their new body type.

For more information, go to www.speedosculpture.com.