Sponsors
Last week’s Swim Collective trade show in Huntington Beach offered a look at trends for swim and resort as the industry heads into the season.
Brands such as Z Supply, Pura Vida, Raen, Solid + Striped, Bromelia, Olive Surf, and Copenhagen Cartel were among the lines SES visited, and also exemplified swim trends noted consistently across vendors on the show floor.
The trade show offered a mix of established and start-up brands operating within swim, resort, eyewear, and accessories.
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Corpo’s two-piece swimsuit with a foil treatment.
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Bohodot Barcelona one-piece metallic swimsuit
Foil
Something shiny typically catches the eye; swimwear brands took note, with metallics and foil treatments touted on a number of styles.
Corpo Swimwear International Sales Manager Maria Adelaida Rengifo pointed to the Colombia-based brand’s two-piece fabric print with a foil treatment. The company built a business off watercolor-based prints that are digitized for its swimsuits and coverups.
The brand, which has been around for nearly 40 years, sells in boutiques, hotels, and multi-brand shops, and looked to Swim Collective as part of an effort to expand in the US
Bohodot Barcelona co-founder Cristina Torras also noted at the show the company’s metallic one-piece was one of its more popular styles.
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Olive Surf
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Lexa Swim
Handmade Prints
Companies turning art into swimsuit prints seemed to be a way for many brands, particularly start-ups, to offer something unique to the market.
Olive Surf founder and designer Olivia Hartgers, a fine arts major, takes her watercolor pieces and digitizes them for eco-friendly fabrics made from recycled water bottles. Her pieces, which retail for under $300 are currently sold in East Coast boutiques.
Hartgers’ father is a surfer and her mom’s an interior designer. Olive Surf offers original prints on directional silhouettes that are also functional in the water.
“We’re not doing a thong bikini. It’s classy, sexy,” Hartgers said.
Alexa Dodson, founder and designer of Lexa Swim, launched her business in March and is also using her hand-painted pieces on her sustainable swimwear-focused brand.
Dodson, who has a fine arts background, spent 10 years in film and TV production and said she was lying in bed recovering from spine surgery in 2020 when she decided to start her line.
“We’re new, so it’s been a struggle. But we’re small but mighty,” Dodson said.
Copenhagen Cartel’s lineup of sustainable swimwear at Swim Collective.
Eco-friendly fabrics and a focus on materials science is nothing new, so it was no surprise nearly every brand SES visited touted a sustainable aspect to their lines.
Katrine Lee Larsen, the founder of Copenhagen Cartel, said the company calls itself an “ocean impact label” with its use of seaweed and other recycled materials.
“We really try to push the agenda about how we consume fashion,” Larsen said. “I see the trend starting in other areas of fashion, but swimwear not so much.”
Larsen, an avid surfer, said she started her line in 2020 with a focus on performance and style, with a distribution roster that includes outdoor retailers and resorts.
The brand received a boost when the Crown Princess of Denmark was spotted in its army green one piece. Larsen said she was unsure how the princess stumbled upon the brand: “She definitely did not get a discount.”
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Solid & Striped
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Bromelia Swimwear’s coconut skin ivory-color two piece.
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A closer look at the tortoise shell print two-piece and sarong by Bromelia Swimwear.
Some brands played with new textures.
Take Solid & Striped as an example. The company was showing ribbed fabric on its Daphne two-piece, which SES was told is a popular set.
Los Angeles swimwear brand Bromelia offered what it called its coconut skin two piece, with a ribbed fabric that created a subtle, three-dimensional effect. And, while not a texture, Bromelia also offered buyers a new take on the traditional animal print with a tortoise shell-print bikini.
“It’s such a nice show; it really connects us to the pulse at the moment,” founder and designer Lauren Quinn said of Swim Collective.
Bromelia has one storefront on Abbot Kinney in Venice, Calif. Quinn, when asked if more stores were in the future, said “possibly.”
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Bohodot Barcelona
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Johnny Was
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IM Swimwear
New Florals
New takes on floral – the perennial go-to print in swim – were in full force at the show.
Bohodot Barcelona is known for its “very romantic, Mediterranean style,” said co-founder Cristina Torras of the mother-daughter duo.
Bohodot’s tiny floral designs with ruffles have been popular, said Torras, who studied economics and launched the company with her mother and the brand’s designer, Peque de Fortuny. The two founded the company with a focus on working with manufacturers and suppliers in Spain.
Johnny Was, known for its mix of floral prints found on scarves, transferred some of those designs onto its swimsuits and coverups for a vintage-inspired look.
The company launched swim just before the pandemic and sells to retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Everything But Water, and Hilton Resorts.
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Nomads Swimwear
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Mary Mercedes
Brands touting a range of sizes also held a presence on the show floor.
Taylor Long, founder and CEO of Nomads Swim, said her pieces – made from biodegradable fabric that breaks down in five years in landfill conditions – come in sizes XS to 5X.
Another brand also leading with inclusive sizing was Mary Mercedes. Mercedes has done away with the typical sizing on her line and instead uses words such as “strong” for size small, “magical” for medium, and “limitless” for large.
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Raen
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Z Supply Eyewear
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Pura Vida stretch bracelets
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Aloha Collection totes
Accessories
Eyewear with thick frames was another trend among vendors showing accessories at the show, including Raen and Z Supply Eyewear.
Z Supply’s eyewear showed a number of chunky frame sunglasses.
The brand’s eyewear is sold in retailers such as Common Thread in Costa Mesa, Tiki Girl in Ventura, Girls Fashionably Late in Santee, and M.Fredric stores.
Accessories outside of eyewear were also exhibiting at the show, with brands such as Aloha Collection and Pura Vida.
Tony Casella, the Southern California sales rep for Pura Vida, said the company delved into stretch bracelets last summer with three styles. That’s since grown, with Pura Vida showing more than a dozen stretch styles at Swim Collective.
Pura Vida is also expanding beyond its core tween customer with demi fine jewelry, which launched last spring. The brand was showing the collection’s third drop last week.
“Every launch is a sellout,” Casella said, explaining why the sales reps have had a hard time getting a hold of the demi fine pieces.
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Nichole Powell, Kinfield founder and CEO
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LA Sol’s zinc sunscreen and lip balm
The Cross-Sell
What goes well with a swimsuit? Plenty, based on the number of non-swimwear vendors showing.
Retailers received a healthy dose of cross-sell suggestions at the show.
Nichole Powell, founder and CEO of Kinfield – maker of mosquito repellant, anti-itch balm, and other outdoor products – said her brand is in about 350 doors with her Golden Hour mosquito repellant set to launch in Anthropologie. Kinfield can also be found in Urban Outfitters, Free People, and indie boutiques.
LA Sol Collective, a suncare products brand, is in about 20 stores, including the Balboa Bay Club and Waldorf Astoria Dana Point. The goal, co-founder Staci Barrett told SES, is to at least triple the company’s in-store presence and double the direct-to-consumer channel. Barrett said her business partner was in a meeting with Jack’s last week and the company is also in talks with USA Water Polo on a potential sponsorship deal.
Photos from the Swim Collective Show