Solid & Striped’s Collaboration With RE/DONE Is Angling For A Place In Your Suitcase

There are three steps to the summer holiday: first you save, second you organise and thirdly you breathe in the air of freedom and relaxation. If you haven’t passed stage one we recommend looking away STAT.

Adding to their international appeal, the New York-based swimwear label Solid & Striped who use only the very best European and Japanese fabrics have collaborated with West Coast label RE/DONE on a line of swimsuits inspired by Los Angeles. Known for reworking vintage denim into the type of item that makes fans out of the Hadid’s and Cindy Crawford, any label this jean brand pairs up with needs to be a natural fit. ’Working with RE/DONE made perfect sense in terms of our shared customer bases and complementary brand aesthetics.’ explains founder Isaac Ross to Grazia.

‘The idea was to design three micro collections, each one drawing inspiration from an iconic Los Angeles neighbourhood.’ Says Ross, ‘The thing that amazes me about LA is how different the cultures of each community are. We wanted to represent the old world glamour of Hollywood, the sporty beach culture and attitude of Malibu, and the playful nostalgia of Venice.’ Simply this means the collection has three distinct personalities. There’s the slick minimalism of the Hollywood arm exemplified by a high-cut black bikini with pronounced cups, a Malbu line that channels sportiness through a motocross checkerboard print and racing stripes and a tie-dye rich Venice collection.

As ever, packing for a vacation is about compromise. Economy, business, first even, regardless of what class you fly the luggage allowance is near enough. Ross explains that they found a solution: ‘Bathing suits that could be worn as a top. We wanted to design multifunctional pieces. Our customer wants to throw on a bathing suit and a pair of denim shorts and be set for the day. That informed our decision to design one-piece and bikini silhouettes that can be paired back to denim.