Swimwear Spring Summer 23: fun, femininity and enhanced performance The - Fabrics
The technical fabrics dedicated to Swimwear for Spring-Summer 2023 are striving to obtain a harmonious blend of functionality, sensoriality and fashion fantasy. Eco-responsibility is clearly a prerequisite and is present in all the sector’s propositions, with many alternatives. Versatile creative offerings navigate between a joyful and pop universe, while combining performances adapted to the practice of nautical sports. And given the growing success of open-air water sports such as paddleboard, surf and longboard, the Sport & Tech sector is pushing technical features to their limit while favouring more porous uses.
Pop and fun swimwear
Embossed knits
For women’s swimwear, whether one- or two-piece, fabrics stand out for the fashion fantasy designs produced in relief, and the textured surfaces. Attractive effects of bubbling or crepe or more-or-less pronounced retractions are easily adapted to leisure use while still boasting high-performance properties such as anti-UV, anti-chlorine and fast-dry. The trend in decoration is for tone-on-tone geometric designs. For a boldly retro look, checks and naïf patterns pay homage to nature. Tropical foliage and butterflies embellish bikinis enriched with flounces and gathers. Colours are resolutely optimist, and reference the bright, lively tones found in the SS23 Première Vision colour range, notably the vibrant oranges and pinks.
Strange sponges
To respond to the desire for products that successfully combine comfort and frivolous fantasy, sponge knits explore new horizons. They are decorated with playful jacquard patterns in tone-on-tone or embellished with lurex, to add a dose of seduction. Compositions are diversified and open to eco-responsibility with natural blends of linen or hemp, or recycled blends. More fluid and also lighter, sponges can be used to develop products with mixed uses, at the crossroads of loungewear and swimwear. Shorts suits or sexy striped outfits to be worn at the beach or in town.
High-performance and feminine
Close-fitting and high performance
Knits designed for extreme marine activities are given extra stretch. Bi-stretch, close-fitting knits are compact and particularly dense, offering freedom of movement, hold and shaping performance. These are ideal for producing sturdy swimwear and wetsuits that can brave all the elements. Materials favour matt, almost rubbery surfaces, or adopt more or less pronounced waves.
This season, swimsuits are inspired by a graphic influence with cut-outs, piping and colour blocks in bold and contrasting colours, creating optical illusions that lengthen the body and underline the silhouette. Cropped tops, bralettes and high-waisted pants with simple, overstitched lines borrowed from corsetry, are worn for surfing or in the city with jeans or a skirt.
Technical fabrics are rich in anti-UV properties to allow colours to last and not fade. In the harmonies of colours, blues take precedence. Abyssal, intense, even electric, they combine with optical whites and warm, vibrant brights, such as an almost neon synthetic coral.
Inserted details
Technical clothing becomes more feminine and more suitable for daily life, shifting from Olympic pools to city streets.
On these products, knits teeming with technical properties and ultra-soft to the touch are used in association with more fashion-focused fabrics. There is a desire for graphic contrasts using stripes that alternate matt and shine, or geometric patterns. Honeycomb, piqué or nets are more or less transparent and are used on swimwear in a series of cut-outs. Racing back swimsuits are more sophisticated with asymmetries that reveal shoulders or ultra-deep V-necks. Wetsuits have transparency at the waist and on the legs to embellish these parts of the body.
Accessorised with oversized jewels, a metallized hybrid parka and vertiginous heels, they are transformed into an ultra-sexy leotard in which to dance all night. Best worn in black for a truly heavenly theatrical effect!
See our other Sport & Tech breakdowns for the SS23 season.