Hot vax summer would be incomplete without a vast array of swimwear. After a long year of uncertainty, shoppers are ready to double down on their social activities, and they’re heading to beaches and pools with more conviction than ever.
Enter a swimwear category ripe for innovation—and one that sustainable denim brand Boyish Jeans is eager to tackle. The Los Angeles-based brand teamed with fellow sustainable City of Angels swimwear brand Vitamin A for a low-waste line of bathing suits and light-wash denim designed for a summer spent by the water.
Tapping some of Vitamin A’s bestselling swim styles, the capsule collection includes six mix-and-match pieces including a bikini, a one-piece swimsuit with square neckline, high-waisted jean shorts and a knotted crop top pulled together with a summer palette of sky blue and orange.
“Our company ethics align well,” Jordan Nodarse, founder of Boyish Jeans, told Rivet. “It’s a great way to help each other work together on a small capsule of products…in other clothing categories than what we both currently offer.”
The collection highlights Boyish’s bread and butter: ethical California fashion. The shorts are made with 70 percent OCS-certified organic cotton and 30 percent Tencel Lyocell, while the top is made with 70 percent conventional cotton and 30 percent GRS-certified recycled cotton.
Though swim is a notoriously plastic-heavy category, this collection features organic alternatives to fossil fuel-based nylon fabrics. The swimwear is made with 77 percent BioSculpt, a plant-based polymide sourced from castor beans, and 23 percent Lycra spandex. BioSculpt rivals sustainable swimwear fibers such as Mipan Regen Ocean, a recycled nylon material derived from abandoned fishing nets plucked from global waters. The fiber was developed by South Korean fiber manufacturer Hyosung last month.
Boyish Jeans is committed to working with ethical factories, using less harmful chemicals during the dyeing process, reducing water usage and incorporating recycled fabrics and materials into collections.
The brand is a partner of 1% For the Planet, an environmentally focused non-profit organization. Through the partnership, it pledges to give at least 1 percent of its annual profits to organizations that share its core values of sustainability and equality. It has also recently undergone an intensive initiative to map out its entire supply chain using Retraced GmbH’s blockchain-based transparency plugin for better insight into its products’ lifecycles.
The Boyish Jeans x Vitamin A collection is available now on the Boyish and Vitamin A websites. Clothing sizes range from XXS-XL, and bathing suits are available in sizes XS-XL. Retail prices range from $78-$220.