A bikini look with full body support, shape, and comfort.

This is me, wearing one of the designs I have been working on for the last two years... Yes. TWO!  

It might not look a lot to you, but I will walk you through some of the steps involved in making our beautiful and "effortless" MARA.

First, we start with the full idea in mind. Mine was: How can I help busty gals feel comfortable and supported in a full swimsuit? Bear in mind that I have been working in the lingerie and swimwear industry for 20 years now and the recurrent themes are: "my torso is too long for a fully", "my boobs are too big and I have to buy a cozzie 3 sizes bigger to it can fit my girls but doesn't fit my body", "nothing supports this puppies". And so on... 

I started to "fill the gap" designing bikini tops that actually fit busty bodies and bottoms that stay. Everything Mix-and-Match. It has been a great experience to offer that option so my girls always only buy exactly what they need and are not tied to matching bottoms just because "it came in a set" -But that is another story I will share at a later stage, let's go back to Mara now.

Next, to the inspo-drawing board! I worked closely with Diane, my extremely experienced and amazing studio right-hand in a design that I had in mind and that could be made with bra-making techiniques but will serve the function of a bikini top. Not an easy task. We did a few pattern iterations, We started running fittings in sizes 34FF and 36FF to ensure we start right at the middle of the size curve*  and after sharpening some details like bust centering, coverage, sides width, potential finishings we got to start grading that base pattern. Up until this point a few months had passed.

Then I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy and of course took a big pause on this gigantic project only to resume it almost a year later.

When we got to this again, the groundwork had been done and we were ready for the bikini top part to be made. Here we decided it was gonna be a bikini top first and then it was gonna "speak" to a full costume bottom part that can be added to it. But... One in every size equals to 28 different bikini tops, and if you add the different sizes in bottoms and the possibility of making them long torso, that gives us 208 different iterations of this simple style!!! For a small brand like ours it is virtually impossible to hold that amount of swimsuits on the rail only one in each size =(  But, for a small brand like ours to have the technical knowledge to produce something that is at the level of very famous brands out there regarding feel, fit and finishing is a great accomplishment. We might have a rocky road ahead trying to lift this off the ground, but we will keep bringing the best foot forward in order to honour women with our work. 

Despite the obvious challenges that a style like this brings, it gives us a great sense of joy and pride to have been able to produce something that fits, hugs and makes you feel like a queen!

Get yours here https://loydetriana.com/products/mara-full-costume-the-berg 

Loyde

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