‘The swimwear global market is huge’: the interview

Fella Swimwear is in the higher market place for swimwear.

Fella swimwear is a Sydney based, women and kids luxury swim brand. It was founded in 2012 by Rosie Iffla and Christine Tang.

Q. How did the idea of Fella Swimwear come about?

A. Two Perth girls living in Sydney talking about doing something new together.

Q. Is there a lot of work behind making a costume?

A. Yes there is. The design part is the easy part. It’s the sampling part that is the hardest. We make a first sample then re-work / re-make it over a month or two doing several different versions to make it as perfect as possible. We try it on multiple body shapes as well. Myself, my business partner and a fit model.

immagini

Fella. Fashion sea costumes

Q. There is considerable expertise in the choice of fabrics. How do you select them?

A. In the past for our basic lycras, we use the highest quality Italian lycra. We also have a range that is custom made where there is a pattern weave through fabric which makes it thicker and stronger to suck the body in. We also have attended a tradeshows in Canne last year to choose another three different fabrics for our new collection this year.

Q. How does the style change every year?

A. It depends on styles, shapes, prints, fabrics. We like to experiment a lot with fabrics, shapes and prints and collaborate with a new fine artist each year for our prints. But we always keep to our minimal, refined classic style throughout our yearly ranges.

Schede

Fella swimwear

Q. How does the swimwear market move?

A. The swimwear global market is huge. It has completely taken off the last few years. But mainly this has seen the influx of cheaper, fast fashion brands. It has been good for us as we have been around 6 years or so and established ourselves in the higher market place for swimwear which is actually less competitive.

Q. You also place great importance on advertising campaigns. How long does it take to make a campaign?

A. Yes we do. This is something we really pride ourselves on. Normally it takes a month or more to organize and we are usually organizing a few months in advance. Its reasearching architecturally interesting places to shoot globally, stylists to work with, models to shoot with. Campaigns represent our brand ethos so this is very important to us.