Auckland designer Maggie Marilyn has teamed up with Australian swim label FELLA, created by Rosie Iffla and Christine Tang-Corte.
The two brands have worked together to release a swimwear collection of swimsuits and coverups that combine Marilyn’s understated insouciance with FELLA’s minimalist, retro-inspired shapes.
The result is a collection of 16 options including bikinis with both itty-bitty triangle shapes as well as more full-coverage, high waisted options. There is also a sporty one piece in two colourways.
Each is crafted in FELLA’s s textured Italian Pique fabric, a robust, custom fabrication that sculpts and holds, and displays Marilyn’s famous penchant for stripes in a nautical-style pattern that comes in either red or blue.
The same stripe is also found in Marilyn’s wider collection in crisp, oversized cotton shirts, perfect to wear as a beach cover-up for the swim options.
In a conversation with FELLA designers on her website, Maggie Marilyn designer Maggie Hewitt says the striped design harks back to a bathing suit her mother wore ‘every summer’ when she was a child.
“It was almost like her second skin, and I remember how beautiful and effortless she looked, running after my three sisters and me or prepping lunch in the kitchen, wearing this striped one-piece that offset her golden skin,” she says.
“It’s one of the reasons I wanted to carry MM’s classic navy and cherry red stripes over to our collaboration.”
Tang-Corte says she loves the way the two colours look paired together.
“My favourite set from the collaboration is the Julian triangle top and the Franz high-waisted boy shorts in red worn with the navy striped Maggie Marilyn shirt, ” she reveals.
“I love mixing and matching the stripes together and wearing the bottoms as shorts with an oversized shirt and a nice pair of sandals.”
The FELLA designers also reveal the quality of their fabrication is a key driver behind their brand, lasting beyond ever-evolving trends.
“Our fabric has always been the top priority, and we have spent a lot of time sourcing and perfecting the textured fabrics from Italy, France and Brazil over the years,” the designers say, pointing out that if cared for correctly, customers should be able to wear their pieces for several years.
The pieces are available to shop from both brands’ online stores and in-store at Maggie Marilyn.
