Suit Up, Spa Fans

THE great cover-up is on, and it happened almost overnight: All of a sudden, spas -- the last accepted venue for public nudity -- have become discreet. Nevermind that camisoles are being worn as business attire -- and at L.A. Fashion Week, the runways saw a chorus line of bare legs and more -- but inside La Costa and Qua, Glen Ivy and Ojai, tank suits, bikinis and tankinis are taking over the steam rooms and hot tubs.

Rianna Riego has been in the spa industry for 15 years. She got started "back when everyone was naked," but as the spa director at La Costa Resort and Spa, Riego is well aware of the trend. When she and her staff take fact-finding trips to other spas, she packs a swimsuit.

"I won't go naked in front of my staff," she says. Neither, she says, do many other guests, who may know each other from their country clubs or children's schools. "You don't want them to see you naked."

No longer is the spa the sanctuary removed from the pressures of the world, an escape from concerns about body image. Now spas are social venues where bachelorettes, business associates, families and party revelers partake of the waters en masse. Today at some resorts, group spa retreats are more popular than golf outings or tennis games, according to the International Spa Assn.

"There is a pendulum swing," says Michelle Heston, West Coast publicity director for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. At the eight properties she oversees, suits are the rule, for every kind of guest. When guests know everyone will be dressed, "there are no questions."

"We have a lot of intergenerational travel too," Heston says. Grandmothers, mothers and daughters may immerse in a group spa day, but even familial bonds don't overcome awkwardness. "Just like my daughters don't want to see me naked, I don't want to see grandma," Heston says.

As a result, spa attire is coming under the same scrutiny once reserved for the links. Gone is the white robe, once a class equalizer, a cloak of conformity. Now it's the layer beneath that counts.

Taking the heat

Unfortunately most swimwear is designed for swimming in cool water, not sweating in a steam room. And who wants to immerse a beautiful, expensive suit in hot, chlorinated water instead of strutting it on the beach? If modesty is the new spa-going rule, then the challenge is to find a "spa suit," something discreet and durable that's also engineered to take the heat. Ordinary suits often don't stand up to the test.