Womens Swimwear S/S 2025 Retail Buyer’s Guide
The ever-growing women’s swimwear market crowns the one-piece as the most sought-after style, combining performance-oriented designs with interesting textures for a perfect mix of sporty and fashionable look. By Rocio Enriquez.
The women’s swimwear market is crowded yet it keeps growing year after year. It seems that there is always room for more, providing ‘more’ comes with innovation. Well-thought out designs and interesting fabrics are delivering it. The one-piece silhouette continues to be the biggest trend for its beach to everyday wear versatility. Go surfing or swimming, then pair it with a skirt or shorts for a fashionable look. There are great growth expectations for this shape. The vintage look trend is very much alive through low waist cut bottoms and boardshorts, and bandeaus and underwired tops. These silhouettes are developed in textured fabrics with richness of details. Women expect conscious designs that will use sustainable materials and be inclusive, catering to all body types. All-time sliding triangle tops join these trends in the top sellers’ charts.
SS2025 Collection
The main goal of silhouettes this summer is to combine a feminine look with the support and comfort needed to practise your favourite ocean sport. One-piece shapes accomplish this very successfully, which can explain the strong demand they are experiencing. Rip Curl highlights their one-size RC x SC. This is a collaboration with the surfing guide Surf Cities that uses a specific construction technique of circular knit fabrics, engineered to fit any body shape. It can be worn as swimwear and as a bodysuit. Lightning Bolt applies their innovative seaming technique that enhances support and comfort to their Tropical Sunset one-piece, featuring an adjustable halter neckline and flattering ruched detailing for a feminine look. Barts presents two swimsuits. The Norri Halter Shaping one-piece focuses the shaping on the waist for a comfortable fit. The Isla Sculpting one-piece creates a very comfortable and feminine style. “The shaping and sculpting pieces are the most popular, they are comfortable to wear and very stylish”, says Haiqiao Hu, Barts’ Head of Product and Design.
Protest presents the PRTLace, a one-shoulder swimsuit that combines an asymmetrical neckline with supportive features. Oxbow adds a trikini to their collection next summer, blending the one-piece trend with the vintage flair. Bralettes are in vogue, too with Oxbow responding to this trend with five different renditions. “We have five different bralette bikini tops, going from the cheekiest bandeau to the full support bralette for practice”, says Product Manager, Thomas Chastol. They keep in mind a sense of style, as seen in one of their full support bralettes developed in a nice jacquard relief in terry towel fabric. Lightning Bolt presents their retro-inspired Sunkissed set with bralette top. This glamour design provides flattering coverage while accentuating your curves with a touch of elegance and romance. Rhythm’s new soft strap balconette is one of the key shapes of their collection. Triangle tops remain present with Protest offering the PRTChip triangle bikini with medium coverage top and regular-waist bottoms. They keep their successful Mix & Match programme that allows customers to combine any top style with any bottom shape. Rip Curl’s bestselling shapes are the tri tops. They highlight two styles in their 2025 collection: the bestselling Cala Vadella cross back, and the Shell Cove sliding tri. Hurley has focused on an elegant offer of nice silhouettes with nice prints, presented in both one-piece designs and bikini tops and bottoms.
We observe two main trends in swimwear fabrics: sustainability and textures. The use of recycled nylon is widespread, whether in polyester or polyamide. Luckily, these materials also allow for the development of different textures, which are all the rage at the moment. Rip Curl has had great results with their flat rib fabric from their Premium Surf perennial programme. To this, they are adding new shiny ribs, lurex, crochet, and jacquard. Barts curates a carefully selected mix of shiny, matt, and structured fabrics. Roxy is meeting this growing demand too. “The tubular fabric, jacquard, and terry fabrics are the new trend, and we are seeing a direct growth on it”, says EMEA Swim Product Manager, Nelly Pargade. Rhythm has developed new custom stripes in rib fabrics and jacquards in custom, in-house drawn prints. Comfort, durability and function are observed in the material selection too. Rip Curl is proud of their new capsule collection made in collaboration with Victoria Vergara, which features premium quality Italian fabrics with high technicity.
Brands have taken inspiration from celebrated coastal spots to develop sea and sand tones, tropical florals, and playful patterns. Rip Curl takes us to the Spanish Balearic Islands, Barts to Australia. Roxy pays tribute to the Mediterranean coast, and Oxbow travels to Madagascar and Brazil. Amongst solid colours, neutral tones are leading the palette. Oxbow, Rhythm, and Roxy offer earthy, warm colours. Roxy focuses on ‘strong neutrals such as taupe and olive, played on rich and shiny fabrics.’ Barts add to their ‘terra’ colour, darker tones such as navy and cedar. There are some bright colours too with Protest accessorising their neutral tones with hints of green, vibrant blues, refreshing pinks and subtle sour greens. Barts offers sportive brights such as coral red, mandarin, and mint green. Oxbow also offers some pop and brighter colours in their second summer release. Print stories feature either tropical florals or geometrical and vintage patterns. Rhythm highlights their check print, incorporated into swimwear after a great performance in apparel. Roxy offers a bonus artist collaboration that celebrates legendary surf spots such as Tahiti, Fiji, Byron Bay, or Biarritz. “Our unique partnership with Australian designer Adrianne Dimitrakakis, founder of Atlas Atlas, combines the vibrant world of surfing with captivating artistry”, says Allison Robard. Hurley curates nice prints to carry their new silhouettes.
Sustainability
Brands are adopting a holistic, sustainable approach to their products. The use of sustainable materials is only one aspect of it, albeit a very important one. Oxbow develops all their swimwear with sustainable fabrics. Roxy has a self-set standard of a minimum 51% of recycled content across their entire range. A big part of Protest’s swimwear collection is made of recycled polyester. Barts tries to use as much recycled polyamide as possible. Rhythm uses only eco-friendly materials in their Classics swimwear collection. Beyond fabrics, production practices are also important. An added positive impact of using recycled polyester is that it requires less energy to produce than making it directly from the raw material. Lightning Bolt partners with certified sustainable manufacturers that use water-saving production techniques. Oxbow produces 25% of their collection in Tunisia, with a French upcycled fabric. “We went to our fabric supplier to pick up fabric leftovers and designed a wonderful colour block with different textures”, explains Thomas Chastol. They have become a B-Corp certified company, and so has Rip Curl. With this step they seal their commitment to environmental and social responsibility. Packaging and hangtags are moving away from harmful plastics, incorporating eco-friendly materials that contribute to a reduction of the product’s carbon footprint.
Retailer Support
The main theme across marketing stories is the celebration of the surfing lifestyle and the places it takes us to. Rip Curl embodies it very well in their brand campaign ‘Live the Search’, communicated through accounts of sacrifices made, injuries suffered, and lengths gone to for the perfect wave. Lightning Bolt profiles a very similar woman in their communication: fearless, unapologetic, and adventure-loving. In a similar tone, Protest captures the spirit of the summer and the joy of exploration in their story ‘Coastal Souvenirs’. Barts pays tribute to their Australian origin with two stories – ‘Wildflower’ celebrates nature, while ‘Sunburned Country’ is inspired by the desert and the Aboriginal culture. Oxbow travels to Africa and South America with their first story featuring the Zebu Surf Collective of Madagascar and their bold printed artworks. In the second one, their ambassador Laure Mayer takes us to Brazil, playing with the contrast between the lush vegetation, the colour blocked favelas, and the artwork that decorates the urban beach promenades.
Brands have rolled out support strategies to communicate these stories to the final customer through their retailers. These include high quality imagery, social media ready content, and in-store displays. Protest also offers customised marketing activities to retailers that request so. Other support strategies aimed to help retailers with their sell-through are carried out behind the scenes. Barts keeps the popular styles of 2024 in their range, with refreshed designs. “Our collection is designed with retailers in mind, combining their input with the latest trends”, says Haiqiao Hu. They also offer the chance to place in-season re-orders, so they can adjust their buying according to the reality of sales. Lightning Bolt provides training to educate staff on product features and sustainability initiatives. Fortunately for retailers, the demand is out there, and brands are delivering the right products to meet it.
Brand Previews
