Hilary Rhoda and Sean Avery suit up with a beachy line.
Credit: Vogue
Solid & Striped—one of the coolest kids at the beach these days in terms of swimwear—has jumped in with Hilary Rhoda and her fiancé, former NHL star Sean Avery, who are designing a limited-edition eight-piece collection of his-and-hers maillots, along with hoodie ponchos and unisex oxfords for the label. “We had originally sent Sean some trunks,” says Solid’s founder, Isaac Ross. “The next thing you know we were all in the samples of what they’d made, watching the sunrise in Southampton.” (They’ve been tweaking the pieces since the end of last summer.)
Credit: Vogue
Credit: Vogue
“The right cut and fit are never easy to find,” says Rhoda, talking of her ideal bathing suits both as a designer and as a shopper, before noting the athletic frame of a triangle-cut bra top (her favorite) or the slightly eighties wide-V plunge of a one-piece (each will hit stores in graphic black-and-white with contrast straps, or in seersucker-mimicking grooves). “You have to let your body do the talking.”
Credit: Vogue
Credit: Vogue
While she oversaw the mood and feel of the capsule, Avery is the technician of the two—obsessing, for example, over the details of a gauzy, boyish cover-up or the long, loose line of chambray-mimicking board shorts. “The dream of this is to head out to Montauk and see three or four girls and guys wearing the pieces, looking good and feeling good,” he says. “Exactly,” adds Rhoda. “Pulled together but easy.”
Source: Vogue