Where do we even begin with our first official year trading as a sustainable brand. We can’t quite believe it’s even been a year! We’ve had so many amazing milestones and moments that have been so special to us this year and we wanted to honour that with our own 2021 wrapped. So if you want to know exactly how much carbon we’ve sequested or how we’ve moved factory three time this year then keep reading.

February 2021 - The Maldives collection

This was our official Maldives collection launch month and if we’re being honest, we genuinely did not know how it would be received. Of course we had our amazing shoot and had put so much hard work into the development of the styles but truthfully, we didn’t know if even one of you would place an order! When we sat down and watched the products go live, we all had this overwhelming sense of “woah, we’re actually doing this.”

Thankfully for us, you did order and we were overwhelmed with the response. Getting to the point of launch was something we’d worked so hard to get to, we almost forgot about what happens next and seeing you all actually receive your orders and then WEAR them all around the world, was so beyond special. We were also lucky enough to be stocked on Namshi for this collection too. Our thanks for this milestone go out to our Maldives team, Cat, Ben, Ed, Laila, Mahalia, Joann, Samira, Alex, Kris, Mira and the team at Anantara Veli Maldives.

March 2021 - Changing course

So we’re not actually sure on the exact date, but it was around this time we decided to part was with our first service provider. We actually filmed a YouTube video on this if you want the in depth storytime but what that essentially meant for us was we needed a new factory and we were going it fully alone as a team of three from then ...

Cut to, mere weeks later our E-comm manager Tash carried us and found us the most amazing factory. Not only was this very important in saving us all from partial breakdown wondering how we would move forward, but it actually ticked off one of our big 2021 goals; to move our production closer to Europe. With the introduction of this amazing sustainable factory in Turkey we entered into a brand new chapter of our journey.

July 2021 - Swim Society Search

Ok this one is a big one and being honest this was easily our highlight of the year. We launched our open casting, in June of 2021 and put out an open call for the women in our community to be a part of our brand. It sounds cliché, but we never expected the response we had. With over 700 entries we picked just 50 to come and visit us on our Oxford Street pop up. It’s not an exaggeration to say those two days meeting all of those people was one of the most emotional, rewarding and humbling experiences we’ve ever had. Listening to a room of women tell us how much our little brand had done for representation, empowerment and body diversity in the industry was easily our highlight of 2021. There are too many of these women to thank but to anyone who joined our Open Casting, thank you.

August 2021 - The Milos collection

Thanks to our brand-new factory, we levelled up for Milos. Our intern Ella created some incredible, unique prints to allow us to elevate from our first drop. Not only that but we were able to have full control over the development and production process. Now, being 100% transparent we absolutely were thrown in the deep end! But what we did know was that we wanted to explore everything that sustainable supply chains had to offer and make sure we had full transparency over that supply chain too. We were lucky enough to take our team to the beautiful island of Milos and shoot, to then launch in September. This collection meant so much to us because we truly did it solo and managed to create something elevated from our first drop. Special thanks for this go to Cat, Ines, Fran, Sydney, Breeny, Dom, Charlotte, Elisa, Lielle, Cora, Gab, Tanesa, Anna and Alex.

November 2021 - Investment!

As many of you will know, we’ve always been completely transparent about our business journey and as part of that we were so excited to share with you that we received our very first round of investment from Fearless Adventures in November. Now, this one was solely down to the universe (no really) as Mon happened to stumble across Dominic McGregor in a clubhouse room.

Having asked him for some advice on business as such a successful business face, it then struck up a great connection which ultimately led to Dom and his team believing in what we do enough to invest in us. Now, we’re sharing this because often all those motivational entrepreneurs you listen to miss out the parts where they got help. But, we will never hide our opportunities, it doesn’t mean we don’t work hard but it means that we all need a little help sometimes. We also filmed a YouTube on our partnership with fearless which you can watch here

Thanks here go to Dom, Charlie, David and the whole team at fearless, plus the friend on the beach in Barbados that convinced Montana to download clubhouse!

The here and now

And that brings us in a round about way to right now. We’ve achieved so much this year and we are so grateful for every person that has allowed to us to get here. But, we can’t tell you how excited we are for 2022. We’ve now moved to our forever factory in Portugal, which allows us to once again elevate and improve everything we do. Going further in being more sustainable, educating more and trying to change the face of fashion as we know it.

To everyone who has been with us on this journey so far, thank you and to anyone who is joining us now, welcome!

2021 in stats

349.5 tonnes of carbon – that’s how much carbon we’ve sequested in 2021

8000 plastic bottles – that’s equivalent to how many plastic bottles we’ve saved from landfill and recycled into our swimwear

3 factories – the amount of factories we’ve used just this year!

11 models – Our amazing women who have helped us represent the brand this year on our shoots

3 countries – how many places we’re already sold; The UK, UAE and Anantara Maldives resort