After our first year of trading we have learned and experienced a lot, in some cases a lot more than we had planned. Since starting our production in November 2020 in China, we have since moved our factory twice and in the process learned an awful lot about the supply chain and production process in the fashion industry. Not only that, but we’ve launched two incredible collections which you all have shown such incredible support, so much so that we were able to launch the Milos collection on ASOS this February. Amongst everything else we’ve already achieved, it’s been a year of huge growth and learnings for us. Which brings us to right now, our third collection and our second year of growth.

The Core Collection, was a direct result of one of our many focus groups and feedback we received from previous collection. So many of you loved our signature unique prints, but longed for staple styles in more basic colours. Alongside that, we know that some of our audience craved styles with a little more support and coverage. And so, the Core Collection was created. We developed some of our hero pieces (The Carmen) and took inspiration from some of your favourite shapes to develop this six piece collection.

For the first time ever, with this collection we were able to use different fabrics for each colour way. Now, for those of you who think this may be an easy task, most suppliers work with what we call minimum order quantities, and for a small brand like ours those minimums are often very high. Couple that with the cost of sustainable fabrics, we face a huge amount of risk to commit to more than one fabric and ensure we meet those minimum quantities. Therefore, we have previously limited our collections to one core fabric across all styles, choosing the most appropriate and best quality fabric in order for it to sit well across different shapes. However, we were longing for some diversity, desperate to see what the sustainable fabric market had to offer and you all agreed. So, with this collection we’re offering two core fabrics. The first being our now signature terry towelling (Black styles), a smooth, spongey, textured fabric made from ECONYL 84% recycled polyamide and 16% elastane. Now, we may be biased but this fabric is really levels above anything we’ve used before. It has that subtle shape retention which allows the fabric to corress every shape fitting perfectly without restriction. The buttery soft, slightly spongey texture gives an elegant luxury feel that we know no one would expect from a sustainable fabric. Our second staple comes in the form of Vita (Khaki styles) also produced from ECONYL in 78% recycled polyamide and 22% elastane. This is our core ‘swimwear’ fabric, super smooth and silky, this is what you’d expect from that trusted swimwear piece you take on every trip. Again, this one fits perfectly to your shape and the extra elastane content means you have a little more room in sizing. Now, you may have noticed by now that this collection differs in price to our previous collections. That is simply because our costs have increased. There is no more to it than just that. Sustainable fashion continues to be very much a privilege to buy in the UK as our entire fashion landscape is dominated by huge volumes, huge margins and a supply chain that is not monitored as it should be. Now are not in any way suggesting we are perfect, but what we do know is everyone in our supply chain is paid ethically and fairly, we know exactly who is producing our garments and we know exactly what conditions they work in. We have every visibility we should have and that in itself costs what it should cost. Unfortunately, making sure we pay everyone in our supply chain properly is not something we’re willing to compromise on. Couple that with a real need to elevate and perfect our product to ensure we’re giving you the best possible swimwear piece, this is where we should sit in terms of price. Like we said, it’s a luxury and we understand that, but it’s also an investment we craft our product to last, we put time and effort into sourcing fabrics that provide support and retain that over time, we develop each shape to try and ensure that each style should have a much longer lifespan than your average fast fashion piece. So with that, comes where we are priced.

If you want to know more about our factory, our supply chain our anything else pertaining to our product you can find everything here. If it’s missing something you want to know, DM us on Instagram or send us an email on support@swimsociety.co.uk we’re happy to give you any info you like, full transparency as always.

One huge thing we’ve tried to perfect this time around was our size info and guide to the fit of each style. We know that no categorisation will always be a part of our core ethos, however, we also know that this means we need to do more work around fitting every one of you and making sure the style you choose is perfectly suited to what you want from your swimwear. So, on each style you’ll now find a coverage and support guide, it’ll look like the image below and you’ll find it just below the details of the product on each style page. The key will indicate what sort of coverage and support that particular style is made for and then the decision is up to you. Alongside that, we’ve elevated our size guide and have a dedicated page on how to find your perfect fit in line with our size measurements. You can find that page here, with a more in depth explanation of how to find your own measurements directly from our production manager who develops and sizes all of our styles. But, if you’re still finding it difficult to navigate- you can always drop us a DM or an email and we can help.

So with all the deep information out the way, let us say we cannot wait to see you all wearing and discovering this collection. This is just the first step of a huge year for us and as we always say, we could NOT do it without our wonderful community. All of you and your support make everything possible for us, you keep us driving forward and elevating our journey every step of the way.

You can shop the Core Collection here.