Barcelona's Camila CTG offers custom swimwear through its Bikini Lab workshop, within a wider artisanal fashion business. Calzedonia combines swimwear with hosiery, continuing the Italian chain founded near Verona in 1986 and represented in Florence. Marseille's La Nouvelle makes swimwear alongside soft lingerie and bodysuits, with bralettes central to its range.
What makes great swimwear designers?
This plate lists 33 shops in 12 countries. Paris has the most, with 6.
Ask what the fabric is: ask how the fabric stands up to chlorine and sun if you swim often.
Ask about sizing between makers: swim sizes differ between labels, so try pieces on where you can.
Ask about returns: swimwear often cannot be returned once worn, so ask about the policy first.
Explore swimwear designers
Use the city plates when they appear below, or open any store for its official door and related ORBIS city and craft links.
Italian hosiery-and-swimwear chain founded 1986 near Verona by Sandro Veronesi. Part of the Oniverse group alongside Intimissimi and Falconeri, it now operates thousands of stores worldwide, including one on Via dei Calzaiuoli, steps from Florence's Piazza della Signoria.
Best for Tights, swim, and beach basics.
Calzedonia was founded in 1986 by Sandro Veronesi and launched commercially in 1987, built around affordable hosiery and swimwear. The company's operational base has always been the Verona area, specifically Dossobuono di Villafranca near Verona, not Florence; it has since grown into the Oniverse group (formerly the Calzedonia Group), which also owns Intimissimi, Tezenis and Falconeri, and today runs several thousand stores globally. In Florence itself, Calzedonia's main store sits at Via dei Calzaiuoli 68R, the pedestrian street connecting Piazza della Signoria to the Duomo - close to, but not on, that square - with a second branch at Piazza Dalmazia. The brand runs a 'Calzedonia Lover' loyalty programme and a sustainability initiative called Calzedonia4Tomorrow, and has run celebrity collaborations including with Hailey Bieber.
Founded in 1973 by surfboard shaper Gordon Merchant and wife Rena in Burleigh Heads, Queensland; the triple-stitch seam they developed for handmade boardshorts became a surf-industry standard.
Best for Billabong surf polos
Billabong was founded in 1973 on Australia's Gold Coast by Gordon Merchant, a surfboard shaper, and his wife Rena. Merchant began sewing knee-length boardshorts by hand for local surfers and sold them on consignment to Gold Coast surf shops for A$4.50 a pair, generating about A$5,000 in sales in the first year. The boardshorts stood out for their triple-stitch seams, a reinforced construction the Merchants developed to withstand the mechanical stress surfing puts on garments, and which became a standard technique across the surf-apparel industry. The brand's name comes from the Wiradjuri word 'bilabaŋ,' meaning a creek that runs only in the rainy season — a reference contemporaries connected to Merchant's habit of chasing waves and conditions. As demand grew, production moved out of the Merchants' home into a dedicated factory and warehouse in West Burleigh, near where the company started. Billabong grew from that single Burleigh Heads product line into a global surf-apparel company, though its origin remains tied to that first batch of hand-cut, hand-sewn boardshorts sold directly to Gold Coast surf shops rather than through any retail chain.
La Nouvelle makes soft lingerie, swimwear and bodysuits with bralettes at the centre of the range. Colour and comfortable construction matter more than rigid shaping, making pieces suitable for everyday layering.
Best for Marseille lingerie and swim label: bralettes, swimwear, and bodysuits
Cala 1789 sells swim shorts, shirts, polos and summer accessories shaped around Riviera resort dressing. Coordinated prints make it easy to build a holiday wardrobe without moving into technical swimwear.
Best for Riviera-inspired swim shorts, polos, and summer accessories
Lemlem makes ready-to-wear clothing and swimwear that traditional weavers hand-weave in Ethiopia, and it also sells accessories. The brand is certified as a B Corporation for the way it works with its artisan communities.
Eres specialises in luxury swimwear and lingerie with sculpted cuts, strong fabrics and minimal decoration. In-person fitting matters because support and line depend on precise size and construction.
Best for Sculpted swimsuits, bikinis, lingerie and activewear
French swimwear brand founded in 2013 by Clarisse de Lacharriere and Aymeric Lacape after a trip to Indonesia's Gili Islands; eco-designed, recycled-polyester swimwear with boutiques in Paris and La Baule.
Best for Printed silk scarves and pocket squares in the Lyonnais tradition.
Gili's was founded in 2013 by Clarisse de Lacharriere and Aymeric Lacape, who created their first swimsuits and launched the brand after a trip to Indonesia's Gili Islands - the trip that gave the label its name, from the Indonesian word for 'island.' The brand's core business is swimwear for men, women and children, built around graphic prints and matching family sets, alongside a smaller range of ready-to-wear and beach accessories. Gili's positions itself around sustainability, describing its swimwear as eco-designed using recycled polyester and running a take-back program; it holds B Corp certification. Garments are manufactured in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. The brand has physical boutiques in Paris's Marais district and in La Baule, on France's Atlantic coast. None of this matches the prior listing, which described Gili's as a Lyon-tradition silk scarf and pocket-square house - that appears to be a case of mistaken identity with an unrelated silk-accessories brand.
Janine Robin has handcrafted swimwear in France since 1948, now run by the founder's great-granddaughter. Its suits are cut and sewn at the brand's own atelier near Bassin d'Arcachon.
Best for French swimwear handmade at a Bassin d’Arcachon atelier
Janine Robin has stayed a family business through four generations. Andrée Tiba opened a small Paris boutique in 1948, selling swimwear she designed and made herself in the basement below the shop. Her son later joined the business, and in 1963 the pair partnered with corsetmaker Le Furet, moving production to Gironde, in southwest France.
The label has since passed down the family line to Andrée's great-granddaughter, Laura, who now oversees the collections. In 2012 the company launched a second line, Laura By Janine Robin, built around softer, second-skin fabrics, and in 2016 the maison relocated its studio to the Bassin d'Arcachon, closer to the ocean that shapes its collections.
Every swimsuit is still cut and sewn by hand at the brand's own atelier, using fabric sourced exclusively in Europe — no step is outsourced. The company says its workers are trained to a set quality charter, with several stages of construction done manually to guarantee fit. Beyond its own 13 boutiques in France, Janine Robin sells through roughly a hundred independent shops and department-store counters, including Le Printemps in France, Inno in Belgium, and Coin in Italy.
Paris swimwear and activewear label founded by sisters Claire and Alix Mougenot, working in recycled fabrics and organic cotton for eco-conscious swim, sport and vacation pieces.
Best for Eco-conscious swimwear, activewear, and vacation pieces.
Luz Collections is a Paris-based swimwear and activewear label founded by sisters Claire and Alix Mougenot. Claire studied at EDHEC business school and worked for a year at a company selling organic, fair-trade food before the pair started the label, built from the outset around ecological materials - recycled fabrics and organic cotton - rather than sustainability retrofitted later. The range spans swimwear, activewear and vacation-oriented pieces aimed at buyers who want both performance and a clear environmental rationale behind the fabric choice.
Corsican swimwear label founded in 2004 by sisters Marie-Luce de Rocca Serra and Sandrine Piergigli of Porto-Vecchio; garments use a double-skin construction produced in a family workshop in Novara, Piedmont, Italy.
Best for Island-made Corsican swimwear with a Mediterranean line
Calarena was launched in 2004 by sisters Marie-Luce de Rocca Serra and Sandrine Piergigli, from Porto-Vecchio in Corsica. The label started with cashmere sweaters inspired by the Corsican mountains before the sisters shifted toward swimwear reflecting the island's Mediterranean style. Production is not done in Corsica: the sisters partnered with a small family workshop in Novara, Piedmont, run by a mother-daughter team specializing in a 'double-skin' swimwear construction technique. Calarena now generates roughly half of its sales internationally.
Quebec luxury swim and resort-wear house founded in 1985 by Chantal Levesque, who began sewing custom bathing suits in her Laval home before opening an atelier in 1986. Sold via Saks, Harrods and Paris's Printemps.
Best for Sculptural swimwear maillots crafted at a Montreal atelier
Shan was founded by Chantal Levesque, who began making custom bathing suits in the basement of her home in Laval, Quebec, in 1985. She opened a dedicated atelier on Jean-Beraud Avenue the following year. The house built its reputation on technically demanding swimwear construction, working in sizes 4 to 16 with cup sizes A to F, with fabric imported primarily from Italy and garments produced in the company's own workrooms. In the early 1990s, Shan showed at Mode City, the international lingerie and swimwear trade show in France, which opened European markets; the brand went on to be carried by retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, Harrods in London, and Le Printemps in Paris.
Brazilian resort brand inspired by Rio's beach culture — refined swim shorts and linen resort wear in sustainable quick-dry fabrics and graphic prints rooted in Rio's beach culture.
Best for Swimwear, Resort Wear
Frescobol Carioca is a Brazilian brand established in 2009, inspired by the relaxed yet energetic beach lifestyle of Rio de Janeiro. The brand takes its name from the well-known beach game of frescobol, a paddle ball sport native to Rio. The brand celebrates movement, connection, and outdoor fun through high-quality products and an emphasis on the lifestyle rather than just sportswear. Frescobol Carioca's collections feature refined tailoring, breezy linen fabrics, and distinctive graphic prints inspired by Brazil's beach culture. Their swimwear is cut from quick-dry sustainable materials and crafted for feather-light comfort, designed for both laid-back lounging and active play. The company has expanded from its origins in frescobol rackets to create a full resort wear line including swim shorts, linen shirts, espadrilles, and other beach accessories. Frescobol Carioca commits to environmental responsibility by using hand-collected driftwood and native hardwood offcuts recycled from Rio's carpentry trade in their manufacturing.
Surfwear brand launched 1958 in San Francisco as an expansion of the 1940s Sun-Dek swimwear line; its 1972 rainbow-striped boardshort became a lasting design, and the brand is now owned by an Italian firm based in Campi Bisenzio.
Best for Italian-American boardshorts with the rainbow-stripe waistband, a nod to Malibu 1958
Sundek traces to Sun-Dek of California, a swimwear brand active in San Francisco from the early 1940s. In 1958 the company expanded into a dedicated line of nylon and cotton-nylon shorts built specifically for surfing, and it went on to sponsor surfers as it grew into Hawaii and the U.S. East Coast through the 1960s. In 1972 Sundek introduced its rainbow-striped boardshort, a design that became closely associated with the brand within surf culture. Ownership later passed to an Italian investment group, and the company is now headquartered in Campi Bisenzio, Italy, continuing to produce boardshorts and beachwear under the original name.
BONDI BORN's Gould Street flagship in Bondi Beach sells the label's designer swimwear and resortwear from a dedicated storefront open seven days a week. The Australian brand also ships internationally through its own online store and is carried by stockists including Nordstrom, David Jones, and Holt Renfrew.
Horst Dassler — son of Adidas founder Adi Dassler — launched Arena in 1973 after Mark Spitz's seven golds in Munich, debuting the ultra-light Skinfit fabric at the 1974 European Championships in Vienna. Owned by Japan's Descente since 1990, the brand sells competition suits and training gear through distributors in more than 100 countries.
Best for Racing-legal competition suits and serious training gear
Barr-ee Station is an independent clothing boutique at Duck's Waterfront Shops, founded in 1988 by Maggie Cox and named for an Australian ranch. The year-round shop carries women's, men's, and children's apparel, swimwear, and jewelry from labels including FLAX, THML, and Seafolly.
Discover handcrafted beachwear and resortwear inspired by Caribbean island life—versatile dresses, swimwear, sarongs and separates for warm-weather escapes.
A Barbados boutique for resortwear, swimwear, evening clothes and accessories for women and men.
Best for Fashion
Butterfly Boutique is in the Limegrove Lifestyle Centre in St. James. Its labels include Sophia Alexia and NAIA Beach as well as In Capri and La Moda. Ask which sizes are in the shop before planning a fitting around a particular piece.
Over the years, our family’s focus shifted more towards the surf industry and it became Desecheo Surf Shop. Jenny moved to Rincón back in the ’70s and broke into the industry by designing swimwear.
A third-generation local swimwear specialist with fitting expertise and sustainable lines.
Best for Third-generation swimwear fitting expertise and sustainable lines.
Goiuri Bikini Denda has operated as a swimwear specialist in San Sebastián's Centro district across three generations, building a local reputation for fitting expertise rather than volume retail. Alongside stocking established swimwear brands, the shop has developed its own in-house label, designed and manufactured only minutes from the storefront -- a "kilometer zero" model uncommon among European swimwear retailers. Since 2020 the Goiuri line has shifted its production toward recycled materials, using fabric spun from plastic waste recovered from the Mediterranean Sea alongside recycled polyamide reclaimed from textile-industry offcuts, aligning the brand's manufacturing with the sustainability language used in its own marketing. The shop is particularly known for sizing depth, offering fittings for D- and E-cup customers underserved by mass-market swimwear chains, with staff -- customers frequently single out longtime salesperson Joseba -- providing individualized consultancy on cut and support rather than self-service browsing. That combination of hyperlocal manufacturing, recycled materials, and hands-on fitting has kept Goiuri a fixture of San Sebastián's independent retail scene even as swimwear sourcing elsewhere in Spain has consolidated into a handful of national chains.
Kibys is a Medellín swimwear and resort-wear label offering bikinis, one-pieces, cover-ups and knitted pieces in its own summery prints. Shop online or visit the brand's showroom at Mall Complex Los Balsos.
French swimwear label founded in Saint-Tropez in 1985 by Alain Kwiatkowski, who began selling men's boxer-short swim trunks on Pampelonne beach at Club 55 before expanding into women's, men's and children's beachwear.
Best for Saint-Tropez swim trunks, the village's own label since 1985
Kiwi Saint-Tropez was founded in 1985 by Alain Kwiatkowski, who started out selling men's boxer-short swim trunks directly on Pampelonne beach at the legendary Club 55, one of the Riviera's original beach clubs. The line caught on quickly with Saint-Tropez's famously fashion-particular clientele, and Kwiatkowski built it out into full seasonal collections for men, women and children, combining exclusive prints with the casual, unfussy tailoring that became known locally as St Trop Beachwear. The brand now operates multiple boutiques in Saint-Tropez itself, including a flagship at 34 Rue General Allard and additional shops on Rue des Commercants, alongside a wider French retail network and stockists that have historically extended to Monaco, Capri, Saint-Barthelemy and Saint-Domingue. Compared to higher-end Riviera swimwear houses such as Vilebrequin, Kiwi sits at a more accessible price point while still competing on print design and build quality, and it is distinguished by offering full womenswear and childrenswear lines rather than men's trunks alone. The brand marked its fortieth anniversary in 2025.
Saint-Tropez resortwear label founded 2010 by Jean-Baptiste Lesort, drawing on the town's 1950s-70s Riviera glamour associated with figures like Brigitte Bardot. Maintains a Saint-Tropez boutique plus swim, ready-to-wear and children's lines sold through stockists worldwide.
Best for Saint-Tropez linen and swimwear with Pampelonne-beach polish
Les Canebiers was founded in 2010 by Jean-Baptiste Lesort, built entirely around the aesthetic identity of Saint-Tropez - specifically the town's mid-20th-century heyday as a glamorous Riviera hideaway for figures such as Brigitte Bardot and Alain Delon. The brand's core business is high-end swimwear for women, men and children, extended into ready-to-wear dresses, skirts, pants and accessories, often featuring hand-embroidery. It maintains a boutique in Saint-Tropez itself and has been carried by resort partners such as the Hotel Sezz spa boutique and Amare hotels, alongside wider international retail distribution. The label describes its approach as 'responsible and sustainable,' emphasizing pieces designed to be worn across seasons rather than treated as disposable.
Italian resort-wear brand born 1994, founded by Massimiliano Ferrari and Raffaele Noris and named for the aircraft route between St. Martin and St. Barthelemy; now managed by Bergamo's Lanikai s.r.l.
Best for Beach-club print swimwear for the whole family, Caribbean-Italian style from St Barth.
MC2 Saint Barth is an Italian beachwear and resort-wear brand launched in 1994 by Massimiliano Ferrari and Raffaele Noris. Despite the name, the company itself is Italian rather than based on the island of Saint-Barthelemy: 'MC2' references the aircraft model that historically flew the short hop between St. Martin and St. Barthelemy. What began as swimwear has grown into a broader lifestyle line covering both beach and ski-resort settings. The company is managed by Lanikai s.r.l., based in Bergamo, Italy. In 2022, private equity firm Peninsula Capital together with the Percassi Group acquired a 40% minority stake, with the founders retaining 60% ownership.
French Riviera swimwear since 1985—haute couture maillots engineered for fit, jewelry-adorned with buckles, stones, lacing, and embroidery.
Best for Riviera-engineered swimwear with precise fit since 1985
Pain de Sucre was established in 1985 in Marseille by Christian Keusseyan and Bernard Evans, who brought tailor-made experience from their family of tailors to seaside clothing. The brand was conceptualized as the precursor of bikini-jewellery, second-skin materials, and quick-drying fibres, revolutionizing the swimwear industry with a haute couture approach to designer beachwear. Pain de Sucre pioneered consideration of beachwear beyond the swimsuit itself, embellishing designs with buckles, jewelry, stones, lacing, and embroideries. The brand is now referenced by more than 650 multi-brand retailers worldwide and maintains approximately thirty shops and corners in prestigious locations including Saint-Barthélemy, Knokke, Geneva, Monaco, Paris, Cannes, and Saint-Tropez.
Swiss swimwear and resortwear label making Riviera-print swim shorts, polos and accessories from Seaqual yarn spun from ocean-recovered plastic; sold direct through rivea.co under the line 'From the sea. For the sea.'
Best for Recycled-fiber swim shorts and Riviera-inspired resortwear
Rivea makes its case in the small print: every pair of swim shorts is built from ten plastic bottles collected from Mediterranean beaches and the sea itself, spun into Seaqual recycled fiber, then cut and sewn in Europe. The brand, whose motto is 'From the sea, for the sea,' rounds out the eco-engineering with a button made from ocean-recovered plastic granules — designed by artist Elisa Pantazopoulos — and a biodegradable, waterproof pouch for each pair. The swim shorts themselves lean into Riviera iconography: prints named for Saint-Tropez, Amalfi, Ischia, and Sicily sit alongside a father-son line and a run of polos and linen-cotton shirts under the Ripley and Mr Greenleaf names. Rivea also runs a coral-planting partnership as part of what it calls the Rivea Project, tying the clothing line to a stated goal of funding reef restoration in the waters that inspire its prints. It's resort wear built around a supply chain rather than just a color palette — the kind of brand where the button is as much a talking point as the trunks.
Saint-Tropez swimwear house founded 1971, known for its turtle-print swim trunks and Riviera-inflected beachwear for men, women and children; still trading on that founding heritage today.
Best for Luxury Swimwear
Vilebrequin was established in Saint-Tropez in 1971, emerging from the French Riviera's beach culture of that era, and built its identity around a single signature product: the men's swim trunk, most famously in playful turtle prints, positioned as a luxury item rather than basic beachwear. Over five decades the house expanded into a fuller beach and resort lifestyle offering - women's and children's swimwear, polos, shirts, shorts and dresses, plus accessories - while keeping the original trunk as its core reference point. The brand markets its more recent collections around durability and repairability as part of a broader sustainability push.
Born in Puerto Escondido's La Punta de Zicatela, Volt Surfwear hand-sews seamless swimwear and rashguards, led by its signature two-size Pantytops. Try pieces at the Nuevo Leon storefront or order reversible drops online.
Best for Hand-sewn, seamless Pantytops swimwear made in Puerto Escondido
Volt Surfwear began in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, and keeps its storefront there today, at the corner of Nuevo Leon and Heroes Oaxaquenos in La Punta de Zicatela - the same surf-town neighborhood the brand credits as its origin. Its signature product is the Pantytops line, a one-piece top-and-bottom swimwear design built in two sizes meant to accommodate a range of body types rather than following standard sizing charts, and the brand extends the same seamless construction across separate tops, bottoms and rashguards as well. Volt describes its own approach as "slow fashion... hand made," positioning deliberate, small-batch construction as the point rather than a marketing gloss, and its collections mix standing designs with limited-edition reversible prints that rotate through the lineup. Customers can try on the core pieces in person at the Zicatela shop or order the newer drops online, and the brand ships from Oaxaca to the rest of Mexico and internationally. For surfers specifically, seamless construction matters practically - fewer stitched edges to chafe under a wetsuit or through hours in saltwater - which lines up with a brand built in and for a surf town rather than adapted from general swimwear.
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