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The girl-owned, minority-owned, mom-owned model designs eco-friendly swimsuits for all physique sorts, and makes them in California.
Denise Foley launched her startup Sundown Vibes Swimwear firm two years in the past with a mission to offer trendy and cozy girls’s swimsuits for each physique.
Foley’s American-made swimwear firm has discovered a distinct segment within the $6 billion American girls’s swimsuit market by providing high-quality, snug, but trendy swimwear for girls of all ages, sizes and styles – not simply the younger, skinny fashions usually featured in magazines and commercials.
The 41-year-old Foley labored in market analysis for 16 years, overseeing international campaigns for among the world’s greatest firms together with Nestle, Levi’s and VISA, when her entrepreneurial spirit kicked in and he or she determined to deal with an issue hundreds of thousands of girls encounter when looking for swimwear.
“I grew up in Oregon, however I moved to Santa Monica in 2009 the place I used to be all the time on the seashore each weekend and after work and it was actually onerous for me to discover a swimsuit that match my physique properly as a result of I’m just a bit bit extra curvy and I’ve all the time had this physique sort,” Foley stated. “It didn’t matter what number of swimwear boutiques I went to, or how lengthy I searched. I simply may by no means discover a swimsuit I used to be proud of.
“I all the time had this dream of beginning a swimwear line and I spotted that numerous girls have physique sorts like mine and that there’s this big marketplace for girls that couldn’t discover swimwear that match them properly. One of many major points I had is that if a swimsuit was supportive, it was very matronly, and I simply wasn’t at that stage of my life but. However then if it was trendy, it supplied no assist and actually wasn’t the look that I wished.”
It was a trip in Brazil that impressed Foley to deal with the ladies’s swimwear business from a special standpoint.
“Brazil has a really sturdy and high-end trend scene, and so they had all these swimwear boutiques and I spotted that swimwear and seashore tradition may be very tied in with Brazilian tradition, and I got here again to America from this trip, and I spotted this wasn’t very obvious within the swimwear business within the U.S.,” she stated. “There are the teeny-weeny bikinis in Brazil, one hundred pc, however I’ll say that the largest distinction is in Latin America, girls are grown and raised to actually embrace their our bodies and so they simply put on what they really feel good in.
“I spotted that self-loving of 1’s physique was lacking from our tradition, so the mission of my firm is to empower girls to like their our bodies, one swimsuit at a time.”
Foley believes that each girl deserves the appropriate to really feel snug and attractive in a swimsuit, regardless of their form or measurement. The issue with most swimwear firms, she says, is they begin their prototypes with a measurement small and simply add a bit extra cloth every measurement up that are fitted for girls of their 20s.
“We didn’t observe that course of,” Foley stated. “We created the prototype. I’m measurement 10-12, and we used my physique because the prototype, and going up and down we adjusted every measurement on the way it match on totally different girls. So, the top result’s in case you are a girl sporting a one-piece or a two-piece, your bust isn’t spilling out on the edges, and you continue to have good supportive cleavage.
“It’s not excessive. And, additionally a ache level numerous girls had is that swimwear may dig into their hips, and we make our bottoms so that they particularly don’t dig into your hips. We even have just one high with a wire, however what we did totally different is the place the wire goes there’s a particular sort of fabric that the wire goes by way of and when the lady is sporting it it doesn’t dig into the pores and skin and may be very snug.”
Sundown Vibes Swimwear is a woman-owned, minority-owned, and mom-owned enterprise, and Foley needs the corporate to be a disrupter within the business. In case you have observed latest tv commercials for girls’s clothes, immediately’s advert businesses have taken discover as properly. As a substitute of waifish fashions displaying trend merchandise, extra girls of all sizes, shapes and colours are actually represented.
Foley is attempting to convey this similar angle to girls’s swimwear – together with altering the norms of the way it’s made.
All Sundown Vibes Swimwear attire is manufactured at one in every of 4 amenities in Los Angeles. The swimsuits are a mix of Spandex and polyester which is Revere licensed, which means the polyester in every swimsuit is milled from 12 to fifteen recycled water bottles. The material can be sourced in California.
“We by alternative select to work with producers within the U.S. so we may give again to our economic system and to cut back the carbon footprint by not ready on cargo to return in from China or different locations,” Foley stated. “The whole lot is made within the U.S., and that’s one of many causes the pricing of the swimwear is costlier.
“However the materials itself may be very luxurious, very high-quality and has SPF 50 solar safety, so it doesn’t fade and it doesn’t stretch out. As a result of we do have the whole lot produced within the U.S. and we work with excellent producers, the price of manufacturing can be costlier than one thing made in China.”
However the glorious American-made high quality gives a swimsuit match that may’t be present in quick trend rivals offered at Goal or Walmart.
“One of many distinctive options concerning the firm is how the tops match, as a result of they’re very, very snug,” Foley stated. “They’re supportive and purposeful, however are nonetheless attractive to put on. If you’re going to go swimming, you aren’t going to unintentionally come out and have an accident. When you put on our high, it won’t damage your neck or your shoulders.”
Foley designs the fits herself with assist from a product developer. However when she started her swimsuit manufacturing journey, her closest confidant was her mom, Nerida Cochagne, who left her native Peru within the Nineteen Sixties and have become a clothes sample maker in Los Angeles. Now that Foley has a 1-year-old son, her mom continues to assist her out.
Cochagne has a wealth of expertise. She has made patterns for the designers of Beyonce’s Homecoming Tour outfits and Tremendous Bowl gown, and even designed patterns the old school method — most of immediately’s patterns are laptop generated — for celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Cardi B. And again within the day, she even did gown patterns for one of many authentic divas, Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Foley’s preliminary gross sales got here at her first commerce present, The Swim Collective in Huntington Seashore, Calif. Her model is more and more gaining recognition, and subsequent week she can be exhibiting at Miami Swim Week on the Miami Conference Middle.
“I’m actually excited, and as an exhibitor, it’s actually massive deal to get in as a result of they simply don’t settle for any model,” Foley stated. “This may give me publicity on the East Coast, the Southeast, and the worldwide market. This present is just like the New York Style Week or Paris Style Week for swimwear.”
Foley hopes to promote her American-made model globally, and has not too long ago introduced on two salespeople and a social media supervisor.
“I do know I’m just a bit startup proper now, however I did create my firm to be a disrupter within the swimwear business as a result of I do assume these manufacturers which might be attempting to be extra inclusive might not be going about it the appropriate method,” Foley stated. “We’ve got a singular strategy to it and moreover having gross sales, I actually do need to empower girls to really feel extra assured in a swimsuit. It’s one thing that’s positively wanted for almost all of girls.”
Sundown Vibes Swimwear presently is available in 5 assorted colours with sizes starting from 4 to 22. Two-piece bikinis, which can be found to combine and match, retail from $235 to $245. A one-piece swimsuit is priced at $190. Sundown Vibes Swimwear is out there at a number of boutiques all through Southern California and could be bought by way of the corporate’s web site.
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