12 stores · curated ORBIS register
Competition suits and training equipment define Arena, the swimwear brand Horst Dassler launched in 1973. Its Skinfit fabric followed at the 1974 European Championships in Vienna, adding a specific material to that early history. Banana Moon takes a beachwear approach with crochet bikinis, following its beginnings on the French Riviera in 1984. At Duck's Waterfront Shops, Barr-ee Station sells swimwear alongside clothing for adults and children, with Seafolly among its labels.
Tolentino / Online
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
PRINTEMPS
French Riviera swimwear since 1984 — crochet bikinis and beachwear born on the Côte d’Azur.
Best for Crochet bikinis and Riviera beachwear since 1984
Waterfront Shops, Duck, NC
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.
Best for Coastal apparel and swimwear
Australia
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.
Florence / Online
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.
Paris
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.
Saint-Tropez / Online
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.
French Riviera / Online
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.
Sydney
Australian swim authority — Bondi-born prints and flattering engineering since 1975. Stocked at Galeries Lafayette in Paris.
Best for Bondi-born swimwear prints and flattering engineering since 1975
PRINTEMPS
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.
PRINTEMPS
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.
St Tropez, France
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.
Curated ORBIS register · official links shown where recorded
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