ULTIMATE SWIMMING GUIDE

A swimsuit with sleeves: what we’ll all be wearing this summer

The ‘Original Sexie Rashie’ is this season’s hottest cossie. Bridget Harrison puts it to the test

Bridget Harrison - Read the original article here

May 27 2017, 12:01am, The Times

 

Anyone who spends their summer holiday caked in factor 50 or with their boobs squished under a tight, high-necked UV vest will know that proper sun protection and style don’t mix.

This year it is going to be different. Enter summer 2017’s hottest piece of swimming kit — it’s called the Original Sexie Rashie, a swimsuit and sleeved UV vest combined. Zip it up and the whole of your upper body is protected from the sun’s damaging rays. Zip it down a bit and you’re channelling Baywatch — the 2017 version (IIfenesh Hadera, the star of the film out next week, wears an identical version in red).

You may also recall Gisele Bündchen in a similar black number when popping off for a dawn surf in the Chanel No 5 advert. However, this new cossie isn’t the offering of a leading fashion label. It is designed by Carly Brown, an Australian mum who gave up her job as a marketing manager only last July. Her ambition: to create a swimsuit that enables women to chase after young children and dive into swimming pools with a freedom that is unfeasible when covered by two bits of fabric held together with string. Brown says: “You can run about and bend over without worrying that everything will fall out.”

The suit is structured to flatter and conceal — and it does. I felt rather amazing in it

At a time when women’s activewear is already so popular that it has its own fashion genre, it was perhaps inevitable that the sport-luxe ethos would translate to water-wear. This year swimsuits are selling out three times faster than they did in 2016, according to the retail analytics firm Edited. While there are 20 per cent more one-piece styles online this year, bikini options have decreased by 9 per cent.

When Brown launched her company in December (Australia’s summer), 500 women joined the waiting list for the Original Sexie Rashie (unepiece.com). She says a fair-skinned A-list actress (who she prefers not to name) liked hers so much she ordered it in all colours.