DOS SWIM x Paloma Elsesser: HEAT WAVE

The bikinis can be worn in the lake, by the pool, on a hike, and more, and also can be a cute part of your outfit. “While the swimwear industry has exploded in the last two years,” Elsesser explains, “it did feel like there was a decline in swimwear that was cool and passable and chunky-girl friendly.”

DOS SWIM’s HEAT WAVE comes in a range of sizes, from XS to 3X, so that more people can rock the bathing suits. DOS’s mission is to make functional and fashionable pieces that anyone can feel good in. “We wanted to make affordable, high quality swimwear with interesting trims and details that fashion girls, downtown girls would be interested in,” Shay tells office. “Ultimately, to sum up, that’s who we are.”

Find the collection for sale here, and check out our conversation with Shay and Paula below!

What brought each of you to swimwear design?

SHAY JOHNSON—Paula and I are best friends. We worked together at Opening Ceremony, and we used to travel a lot before the pandemic. We would go to a lot of places where you’d need to wear a bikini, like our first trip we went to Columbia, and we’ve been to the Carribean a bunch together. We love swimwear. Before every trip we would buy vintage bikinis, but there was a spike where all the girls started wearing and buying vintage bikinis. So, the market was over-saturated. There was nothing left. So we decided to make our own. We made our own just for ourselves as a project. We posted it on instagram, and then all of our friends were like, Oh my god, what is that, we want it. We both really love swimwear, traveling, and being in a bikini.

PAULA HESS—For me, swim was always a part of my life. I love to travel to tropical places, so I feel like, for me, I come from a technical design background. Fit is really important to me and working with clothes in general. I started working with swimwear in 2018, and that just opened a new window for me of what I really enjoy. I think swimwear is less fashion and more functional as well. I like that as a challenge. That kind of tied in how we started Dos.

When you made those first bikinis, how were they created?

SJ—Paula sewed them. So, Paula’s background is in fashion design. She went to design school and specializes in knitwear specifically, but she comes from a design background. She hand sewed all of our original bikinis. I come from a creative production background, moreso like the creative, marketing side.

What are some pillars of Dos Swim? What's your mission?

SJ—To make bikinis that girls feel good in. We wanted to make affordable, high quality swimwear with interesting trends and details that fashion girls, downtown girls would be interested in. Ultimately, to sum up, that’s who we are.

PH—I think the mission is to create something that we both felt was missing in the swimwear industry. We were looking for things that not everybody on instagram has. There’s nothing wrong with them, but from our style and point of view, we like to have something unique. But also not really unique. They’re just bikinis. But the print or where it came from. The workmanship. The details.

SJ—Yeah, there’s small details we try to include to differentiate ourselves from other brands. Also, we don’t mass produce. Once we sell out of a collection, we move onto the next thing. That’s another thing we do differently from a lot of other swimwear brands. We haven’t done any restocks yet. That could change, but how we’re operating now, once we drop and sell out, we’re onto the next thing. So it still feels special and not everyone is wearing the same exact thing.

PH—We create a strong vibe around the collection and make sure the trims and the strings tie into that. We might bring back the same style but with differences. Always something new to keep people interested.

SJ—And they’ll still feel special the next year. Ultimately, I think the mission is to create stuff for like minded people as ourselves. 

How did the collaboration with Paloma Elsesser come to be?

SJ—Paloma is one of our good friends. We’ve known her for a little while, and last summer, we both lived in the same neighborhood at the same time, Chinatown. I hadn’t seen her for a while; we ran into each other and ended up standing on the street for, like, an hour or so, just talking and catching up. At the time, Paula and I were only selling Extra Small to Large, just because as a small brand, it’s really hard to add on sizes. We’re new to this, we’re still learning fits, and fitting things on ourselves, but then, last year, finally, moving up to Extra Large. We were really excited about it, just because it’s another size, so more girls can wear it. I was telling her, and we started chatting. We decided to do something together there. A natural collaboration. Two days later, we were in a meeting talking about ideas and what we wanted to do. Going up to 3X. It was organic. We’re not going to just collaborate with anyone. We want it to feel special, meaningful, and feel right. And it did.

PH—The collaboration with Paloma just happened organically last year. It was new to both of us. What was beautiful is that it was a true collab. We really worked together every step of the way. She gave us her favorite colors and worked with a friend who’s a print designer. It all happened very organically.

What are some design influences for HEAT WAVE?

SJ—HEAT WAVE is based on friendship, being in the city during the summer, taking weekend trips upstate with your friends. A lot of the details of the collection, we used paracord, which translates to hiking and camping and climbing. Things you’d do upstate. The designs are a bit sportier, so you can wear it in the lake or in a creek, but also as a top if you want to, or with jeans or with cargo pants, which you see translated within our lookbook shoot. We’re city girls ultimately. What is it like to have a summer in New York?

PH—I think the whole thing was based on friendship and what would a group of friends do? Relatable, down to earth. What would you wear upstate with your friends?

SJ—But also wanting something functional, that you could wear with pants or shorts. It’s a bikini or a little top and include it within your outfit.

A little more versatile. What do you have to say about the fact that you have a range of sizes causing people to deem your mission as “inclusivity” or “body positivity?” Would you say this about your brand?

SJ—I don’t like to use this term “inclusive.” We don’t use that term. We’re just making stuff. I make stuff for girls to feel hot, things I’d want to wear. Not to make our model Rose feel included; I want to make stuff because I want to see Rose in it. Because She’s just like me, cool girl, downtown, hot, good style, I want to see her in it. I’m not going out to have an inclusive brand. Everybody’s body is different. It is what it is. We’re born the way that we’re born. I don’t think Paula and I think that way. When we set out to do the collab, it was to make something cool. That girls like us would want to wear. That like minded women would want to wear, and girls that we’re inspired by would want to wear. That’s just what it is.

PH—I think what we’re trying to do is just make it normal. A certain size range, and not just be the one special brand that carries those sizes. You can’t say inclusive because there are obviously many more sizes than 3X. It’s interesting to see how people are responding to it, but I think the general message that we were talking to Paloma or trying to put out there is that you can be sexy and you don’t need to be covered up or whatever the market is offering. We’re a sexy bikini brand, and we want to make sure every girl we’re surrounded by is able to wear a sexy bikini.

I agree with you. I feel like that kind of language gets pushed onto different brands, even when that’s just true to the brand. People want everything to be some kind of statement.

SJ—Yeah, and I don’t think that’s what we’re trying to scream out. We just wanted to do a cool collab and offered a bigger size range. Even when we went into casting, we were like, This girls hot, this girls hot. All the cast were our friends. We know them personally. Inclusivity wasn’t necessarily the message.

PH—It’s just who we are, and especially because all three of us work in the industry. We’re surrounded by fashion forward editors and we’re in this bubble. You see how people are so negative, and I think if I have the opportunity to make that change, it’s a lot of work, but I’ll make that to be part of trying to normalize this.

What I’ve gotten from your brand is that it comes across very authentic.

SJ—Yeah, it’s just organic. Paula and I have two different body types. All the swim fits on both our bodies. We never thought in our minds that we have to be body positive and this and that. We fit it on ourselves and our friends. That’s what the girls around us look like.

It’s like, Oh, look, they’re using all different kinds of models, that’s so admirable, when hopefully one day that’s just how it always is.

SJ—Yeah, that’s just how it is. I mean let’s hope. The comments have definitely been funny. I read one yesterday and was laughing so much. I think people aren’t used to seeing thicker plus girls in tiny bikinis like that. We see a skinny girl in a small triangle top with underboob, and everyone’s posting the hot sign on instagram. But then you see a bigger or plus sized girl in a triangle top, and you see, That doesn’t fit her. It’s just funny how the world works. The standard of beauty that we have is still really fucked up.

And bigger women are hyper sexualized as well, especially in a bikini.

SJ—Yeah, and maybe she just wants a tanning bikini! Does everyone want crazy tan lines?