When the world’s largest swimwear fashion week celebrates a decade of perma-tans and palm trees in Miami next week, an Australian label will play a key role in its bronzed and beautiful anniversary.
The World Cup of swimwear, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim, runs in tandem with the Miami Swim Show, the globe’s biggest trade event devoted to swimwear, attracting more than 7500 brands and buyers from more than 60 countries.
While thousands of designers take part in the Miami Swim trade fair, just 30 of the world's best swimwear labels are staging catwalk shows at MBFWS, which opens on July 17 at the Raleigh Hotel in Florida.
Sydney’s We Are Handsome has been awarded a coveted timeslot on the MBFWS schedule, at 9pm on July 19, amid the lush greenery and chic cabanas of the hotel’s grand Oasis area.
The brand renowned for its bold digital prints has also been selected as one of just 10 labels commissioned to create a custom swimsuit for a gala runway show celebrating 10 years of the bold and brash event on July 17.
“It’s very showy and there is absolutely no modesty,” We Are Handsome co-founder Jeremy Somers said.
“It’s like Los Angeles multiplied by the Gold Coast – on steroids.”
The brand was invited to take part in the Florida event after a representative from MBFWS attended the We Are Handsome show in Sydney in April during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia.
“She came up to us minutes after the show, gave us her card and said ‘do you want to do a show at Miami?’” Somers said.
We Are Handsome will present its new Catalyst and Euphoria collections of sleek one pieces and sporty bikinis that are renowned for prints featuring retro-style digital photographs of animals, sunsets and buildings.
“Other brands do florals and geometric prints each season but our prints are very unique and one-of-a-kind,” he said.
An audience beyond the industry will also see the prints, with the brand partnering with Mercedes-Benz to custom wrap a car in a We Are Handsome print to be driven around Miami during MBFWS, which also features Australian labels Lisa Blue and White Sands.
