Tribeca mom of three Shimrit Bahar, 39, wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a belly button-baring crop top with a Y2K-era low rise jean, but there’s something satisfying, she said, about displaying her hard-earned indentation of sculpted abs in a cut-out dress or high-waisted skirt and bra top.
“I obviously work hard so I do like showing off that part of my body,” Bahar told The Post.
Keeping it subtle is key.
“Sometimes when you show too much skin it can skew the other way – just a sliver is enough to get the vibe,” said Bahar, who relishes her four- to five-day-a-week dance-cardio workouts at Manhattan-based boutique fitness studio DanceBody. “You’re showing three inches max – no belly button or hip bone.
“It feels appropriate – Ivanka wore it to a wedding,” she added, referencing the two-piece, bubble gum pink, rhinestone-encrusted halter top and coordinating skirt that the former first daughter, 41, wore to half sister Tiffany Trump’s Palm Beach nuptials last fall.
Advertisement
Fit, style-conscious older millennials and Gen Xers are embracing baring their midriff, but on their own terms with sexy, low-key slivers of skin showing off taut — but often not rock hard — midsections.
“No one really cares about six pack abs. It’s about being able to put on a cropped top or cut-out dress and not having to overthink it,” Katia Pryce, founder of DanceBody, told The Post.
Advertisement
Celebs and socialites over 40 have taken eagerly to the trend. Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, 53, recently wore a cropped sweater in Aspen, while Kourtney Kardashian, 43, showed some skin in a curve-hugging, monochrome white two piece at her family’s Christmas party.
Mindy Kaling, 43, has shown off her dramatic weight loss of late with various midriff-baring ensembles, while lifestyle influencer Athena Calderone, 48, often complements the tasteful interiors of her Hamptons and Cobble Hill homes with a glimpse of torso.
High-end designers are catering to the look. Australian designer Christopher Esber — a favorite of of Pilates guru Melissa Wood Tepperberg, 40 — crafts midi dresses with triangular cutouts and ruched bodices meant to elongate the figure, while New Zealand’s Emilia Wickstead offers an elegant take on the pencil skirt with a high-waisted silhouette and coordinating bra top.
Even women well beyond their 40s are making it work.
Maria McEvoy, 57, a psychologist and personal coach in Tribeca, recently went to a wedding in a silk dress with a laced deep V and two triangular cutouts at her midsection. She felt like she was a teen again — but way more chic.
“I didn’t show my abs when I was 18,” she said. “But now I’ve never been more comfortable in my own body.”