So, once upon a time 3 years ago, I was sat on a beach in the Maldives with a few of my friends and we were talking about how the majority of swimwear is catered for one size of women in the world. We were saying it’s unfair and quite frankly…. ridiculous! We all passionately stated that all women deserve to feel represented, confident and sexy in swimwear. Then, out of no where, almost like a lightening bolt, I thought of it. The groundbreaking idea that there isn’t really a brand out there that caters for women of all shapes and sizes, that also offer stylish and flattering styles and designs. From that moment on, I wanted to create a brand. A brand that stood for inclusivity, strength, confidence and women empowerment. A brand that didn’t pigeon hole you into a category of “petite”, “curve”, “tall”, a brand that could offer not only amazing quality swimwear, but also a community of people that are supportive, empathetic, powerful and loving.

 

So I did just that. I started a brand, and I called her Swim Society. I honestly felt like it was my child in some weird way but, it meant a lot to me (and obviously still does but I haven’t written something like this in a while so my writing skills are at a minimum and I am trying to narrate a cute story here). We formed the business in 2018, I was a joint shareholder of the company and things were going well. However, as time passed and we moved into different phases of the brand journey I realised that I had a very different vision for where I wanted Swim Society to be. I knew I needed to make a change in order to stay on the path of the dream I had for our brand.

 

After a lot of back and forth, I made the leap. I finally took over Swim Society by myself…. Little old me! Who would have thought. I wanted Swim Society to be run the way I wanted, and I desperately wanted the responsibility. So here I am, two wonderful employees and I are running Swim Society exactly how I always wanted.

 

The future of Swim Society looks pretty huge to me. I have high hopes and big things I want to achieve with the brand. I want to break stereotypes, empower people, teach people to love themselves and to free their minds of judgement and criticism we so often face in our everyday lives now. I know it sounds really cheesy and odd, but I really just want people to be happy and I recognise that a lot of people find that hard in modern life. I massively changed as a person quite dramatically when I lost my friend to suicide, and I know that might seem seem irrelevant, but it woke me up from a very superficial place in my life and I realised that I wanted to help people in whatever way I could. I realised that I could do that with Swim Society. I now look to take people on our journey of creating sustainable swimwear, taking care of our planet and most importantly, spreading the love which so many people need more of. I not only want to sell swimwear, but also in the future create a community where we can hold workshops or events to help with peoples body image, body confidence, self love and self esteem. We all need a bit more love, a bit more kindness and a bit more freedom to express ourselves in whatever way we choose.

 

As a brand owner, of course it is important for the company to be profitable, but I want to feel good about my decisions and I want to make a difference to peoples lives even if it is in a small way. So to end my (what’s looking like a very long) blog, I’d like to tell you a story of a wonderful person that we met on our journey. Once upon a time, way back when we first started the brand, we did a casting to pick some girls for our first ever campaign back in 2018. We met a young girl called Amanda. I remember it so vividly because we met so many girls that day, but with Amanda, I could see how nervous she was but also you could tell how beautifully pure and lovely she was too. We later found out after speaking to her that this was her first ever casting and she also had never modelled before. We had some wonderful girls attend the casting and in the end we picked 4 models to attend our first ever campaign shoot abroad. I made the decision to take Amanda away with us too for the experience as I loved her kind nature and I thought it would be amazing for her to experience the trip without the pressure. On the trip, we discovered that she had battled with anorexia and had been in and out of treatment for this. It was apparent that she did not see how beautiful she was, and was oblivious to how wonderful she was as a person too. I still speak to Amanda now and I think everything she has overcome is phenomenal. It was amazing for me and the team to connect with Amanda and she really opened my eyes to a lot of things that I was oblivious to. The pressure of being a certain size, the modelling industry and societal expectations. Meeting somebody like Amanda made me realise that there are a lot of people who don’t see their own beautiful traits and their own strengths for whatever reason, and I want Swim Society to help break down those barriers for people to see and love who they truly are.

 

We are using this page for people to share their experiences, to connect with people who you may feel you can relate to and essentially create a space where you can read these stories and feel like you are not alone.

 

Love you guys always and can’t wait to connect with all of you on our journey

 

Mon x