How to Start a Swimwear Brand: What No One Tells You About Design and Production

Swimwear and beachwear are such joyous categories to work with, especially for design, they are full of the connotations of the good times and feelings of holidays. The mid afternoon nap on a sun-bed by the pool after you’ve devoured a great book, snorkelling at a bay in the Greek Islands before a taverna lunch, a quick plunge that makes you feel really alive in a glacier lake mid hike. These are the moments where life feels really simple and thoroughly enjoyable, swimwear plays a part in the outfit of these glimmers.

In addition to the dreamy contexts where swimwear is the outfit, swim also acts as a beautiful colour and print vehicle, we all wear hues and patterns in our swimwear that we wouldn’t normally wear in our ordinary wardrobes. We know we’re going to have a bit of a tan, bathe in sun drenched lighting and feel more relaxed, so we’re a little more adventurous with our colours and print style.

There are purposes other than holiday for which we buy swimwear, they are not so much day-dream orientated, our morning laps in the lido before work, sauna and cold plunge sessions throughout the winter, and high coverage pieces such as rash vests for serious water activity, again these activities take us out of our routines and norms and leave us feeling good in both body and mind.

For many, swimwear is an emotional purchase and one associated with times of relaxation, fun, wellness and escapism.

Left on Friday, designed from Vancouver Island

So you want to start a swimwear brand? You’re not alone, the market is busy. As we’ve already established it’s a product that many people hold a particular fondness for. However, there is certainly room in the swimwear category for quality, innovation and a unique product positioning. Saturated it may be, but if you feel strongly about your idea for your swimwear brand and your creative vision, there is plenty of white space to be had in the swimwear, beachwear and resortwear womenswear market.

Quality seems to be one of the main areas lacking in women’s swimwear, the exciting designs are there in abundance, but good fitting, high quality fabrics and exceptional construction are difficult to find. Two brands spring to mind that fulfil these areas, Left On Friday, premium active swimwear which was actually set up by two ex-lululemon employees, so think lulu quality in swimwear. The second is a Brazilian swimwear brand, Haight. When I felt the body fabrication on one of their swimsuits it stopped me in my tracks, deliciously snug, sheen and soft all at the same time.

Haight

Now we’ve established a bit of background on the swimwear market, let’s get to the fundamentals about design and production for swimwear when starting your own brand.

Be clear on your market positioning

The hill we will die on. Know who you are designing for, and which brands will be your competitors. 

What are they doing well, and where is there room for improvement? 

What will you do differently? 

What will make your brand memorable to the customer?

Swimwear is no longer such a seasonal product, lifestyles have shifted meaning consumers wear swimwear throughout the seasons, from sauna sessions in the colder months, to the rise of self care and spa treatments and off season travel. It is important to remember this when you create the ethos for your brand and decide what story you want your swim collection to be centred around.

An interesting take on this is from Perfect Moment, a ski brand who translates its iconic ski design codes into swimwear, and it works. They switch from their winter home of Chamonix to Ibiza for the summer, the result is clean and contemporary, luxury yet sporty swimwear.

Work with a specialist

Swimwear is just like lingerie in the way that it is such niche product, you should work with experts in the field. Designers and consultants who have experience in swimwear (and even better if they’ve worked with lingerie too) will navigate you through the traditional design and production process, but also the particular fit, construction and technical issues that come up in the swimwear space.

At Studio Nu, we know how to fit on a chest - we understand each millimetre on the neckline is critical, we ask the right questions about the cup foam and we have strong opinions about how long and wide that gusset should be. To be brutally honest, you’re not going to get that from traditional apparel designers.

Fabrication

Materials and fabrics are key in any product category, but particularly in swimwear. Really take your time to pick the right base fabrics think about hand-feel (the way the fabric feels in your hands, on your skin) this is so important when the swim product is close to body, and in and out of water whilst also dealing with heat. 

Quality is important here, consider colour fastness and light fastness, the product is probably going to see a lot of intense light via the sun, possibly chlorine, and salt water. This is something to work through with your consultant, your raw material vendor or your factory partner - testing is key here.

Fabric and colour work at Studio Nu

Print

Print is a huge part of swimwear, and whole collections can be centred around one print or a graphic design, here you need to consider where you’re going to get your print artwork from for your collection, there are a few options:

• Buy available print files/ hangers - these often need to be reworked and put in to repeat and correct scale, so make sure you have a print designer to work with on this.

• Commission a print with a print designer - this may cost a little more than an available file, but then you ensure you get exactly what you want, the print will be truly personalised and automatically created in a repeat pattern.

• If you just want simplistic prints such as stripes or polka dots, then your swimwear designer or consultant can probably manage these themselves, rather than reaching out to an actual print designer.

• The last option is buying available fabric that is already printed, this can be a great time and cost efficient choice, however leaves little room for creativity and chosen signature design handwriting in your collection.

Sezane x Farm Rio

Swimwear, Beachwear and Resortwear

Think about if want your collection to be purely swimwear or do you want to have a mix and match, holiday wardrobe feel with some beachwear and resortwear? Consider this early on as it may affect your manufacturing choice, not all factories can handle swimwear and resortwear, you may have to produce the collection across a few manufacturers.

With the growth in hybrid dressing and flexible lifestyles particularly in work and travel, we’re seeing a growth in resortwear type product. Consider this, resortwear doesn’t always have to be super glamourous, beach club style attire, what are the extra pieces that compliment your swimwear? What is the full outfit your customer will want to be wearing?

Rat and Boa

Swimwear Manufacturing

We always like to stress at Studio Nu the consideration and time you should take to find the right manufacturer.

Swimwear has a few countries which specialise in its production, lets run through some of the possible locations:

• Portugal - Premium and sustainable production for small to mid sized brands

• Indonesia - Great for fashion swim and resortwear for boutique brands

• Colombia - Technical skilled production, great for premium fashion

• Italy - Ideal for luxury end of the market, no explanation needed

• Tunisia - Competitive pricing and ideal for the European market

• Vietnam - Increasingly sophisticated swim product coming out of Vietnam factories

We’re aware we’ve not mentioned China or Sri Lanka, this is because the factories in these two countries will only tend to accept large orders (MOQs) and when starting a brand you tend to look for flexibility in low quantities for your first few orders. However, if you are launching with massive volume behind you, these two countries can be options and are masters in the swimwear field.

Once you’ve identified the right country to make your product in, search for a manufacturer that aligns with your values and start to build a strong partnership with them.

Timeline

In fashion production, we call the timeline a critical path, a document forecasting all your key dates that you use to track along the way. The goal is to stay as closely to the calendar dates on the critical path as possible to ensure a timely delivery of your collection. This can be quite the challenge and this is why you will need a strong partnership with your manufacturer and the support of an experienced fashion consultant to guide you through it.

The thing with swimwear is that your ETA date, launch date or in-store date is quite imperative. If you want to launch for spring / summer to catch those peak season holiday sales, each week you are late with your launch during this period is lost sales at your most profitable time of year. 

Allow a fashion consultant to build you a realistic critical path in collaboration with your manufacturer. At Studio Nu, we focus on building critical paths that accommodate the risks of the production process not going to exactly to plan, because we’ve lived it and seen it many times, it’s very rare for everything to go perfectly smoothly and religiously on time in the world of manufacturing.

There is flexibility to build an time efficient timeline if that is your priority, by compromising on certain elements of your product and making commercial decisions, allow your vision to compute for your brand.

Avatar Studio

The swimwear market is alive and thriving, be aware of the vast competition but also seek out that white space in the sector, it’s there. Really consider what you want your brand to be, who your customer is and make sure to work with the right experts. 

Studio Nu can help you set up your swimwear brand, from trend and design to production, you can read further details about our services here.