Meet Follow Suit A New Ethical Swim Line

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With summer in full swing that means swimwear is finally in heavy rotation. If you are anything like me, you want to feel not only confident in your swimsuit, but also have the knowing that what you decide to slip on to go to the pool, lake or ocean has the environment in mind. Enter Follow Suit, a new ethical swimwear brand that incorporates eco-friendly fabrics and other mindful elements in mind. I caught up with founder, Brigid Wygod to find out more.

What was your background prior to launching Follow Suit? 

Prior to launching Follow Suit, I studied Public Policy at Duke University in the United States. I was also a very competitive lacrosse player, playing both in college as well as for the USA on the U-19 Team. After graduating college, I moved to New York City. I was working in finance doing foreign exchange sales and trading for four years, and then moved on to a female founded + led influencer marketing agency, where I was for one year before going full time with my brand. 

“ I wanted to build a brand that matched my values, challenged the status quo, and inspired others to follow suit. ”

What inspired you to take the leap and start your own brand? 

I have long been into fashion and think it was inevitable that someday I would end up in the industry. After graduating college, I got a good job in the finance industry, but upon starting, I knew that that world wasn’t for me and that I belonged in a more creative field. Within my first couple of months, I began dreaming of starting my own swimwear company. Later that year, my mom and I took a trip to Portugal. We rented a car and drove up the coast from Lagos to Porto, stopping in many cities and small towns along the way. It was there that I became inspired to start my brand.  When I got home, I immediately started sketching designs that paid homage to the vibrant towns and beautiful tiles that I became so enchanted with. 

It took a little push from my mom to take the leap of faith and get going on the next steps. I was nervous about starting my own business, as I had no prior experience in fashion nor production, but my mom reminded me that I’d never want to have the “what-ifs” and regrets of not pursuing this passion. After that, I got serious about starting a line. I ended up staying in finance for four years, as I knew I needed capital to launch my brand, taking the time to research and perfect the product, while saving enough to self-fund the line. I learned as I went, and only wanted to come to market when I had suits that met my high standards of both quality and fit. 

Where did you draw your inspiration for your debut collection? 

Our bold, geometric prints are inspired by Mediterranean tiles and the world’s most beautiful beaches.

Sustainability is a key pillar to the brand. I’d love for you to share more about this. 

When I set out to start the brand and began to learn more about the production process, I realized how disastrous fashion’s impact was on the environment. I’ve always been someone who leads by example and felt that the brand should be no different, so I knew I needed to do more than just design beautiful suits. I wanted to build a brand that matched my values, challenged the status quo, and inspired others to follow suit. The word “sustainable” is everywhere now, but when I first started researching fabrics and factories a few years ago, it wasn’t in many brands' repertoire. So for Follow Suit, sustainability has never been about a marketing tactic or about being trendy, but rather about making the right choice.I knew that if I wanted to enter into this business, I needed to be responsible about what I was creating and who I was working with. From the beginning, we’ve focused on being mindful, and to us sustainability means being conscious about our materials, our partners and our processes. 

“...my mom reminded me that I’d never want to have the “what-ifs” and regrets of not pursuing this passion. ”

The majority of swimwear is made from fabrics like nylon and elastic, which is very harmful to the planet because it never decomposes. How did you land on the materials that each piece is made from? 

We wanted to develop a product where sustainability and quality go hand in hand, and not one in which the consumer has to pick one or the other. To do so, we choose every supplier, manufacturer, pattern and material with care. We’re so serious about quality that we spent three years auditing factories, exploring ethical fabrics, and testing sample patterns before launching our first collection. Instead of designing trendy suits that end up in a landfill at the end of the summer, we construct beautiful, high-quality pieces that stand the test of time. We only use fabrics that offer the highest quality and are made with sustainable practices.  Our suppliers monitor every single stage or our production cycle in order to reduce the use of water, energy, chemicals, and waste. All of our fabrics are made with sustainable practices, and we use ECONYL, a 100% regenerated nylon fiber crafted from pre and post-consumer waste such as abandoned fishing nets, industrial plastic waste, and fabric scraps, wherever possible. Using ECONYL instead of sourcing new nylon allows us to regenerate waste materials and give them a new life.

More and more brands are coming out of the gate and being conscious about production methods and the effect on the planet from the get-go. In your opinion, what does the fashion industry, particularly your category, need to do to be more sustainable? 

In terms of production methods, I see the basic rule of supply and demand applying here. If more brands are demanding sustainable fabrics and processes, vendors and suppliers will have to change in order to fulfill this need. I’m also a big believer that small changes can really make a difference over time. For brands that aren’t already sustainable, I think the first step is taking a holistic view of their company to see where small changes can be implemented, without disrupting the entire business processes.
For example, this could be changing your packaging to a more eco-friendly option, switching to recycled paper, offsetting the carbon footprint on your shipments, finding ways to incorporate leftover fabrics into the next season, and so on. Over time, the effects of these small changes will multiply as brands repeat them. 

“We wanted to develop a product where sustainability and quality go hand in hand, and not one in which the consumer has to pick one or the other. ”

Founder Brigid Wygod

What is one of your favorite beach destinations? 

Costa Rica! My husband and I love to take surf trips there. 

What is always in your beach bag? 

A great pair of sunnies, Supergoop SPF, and strawberry mentos (pretty sure I single-handedly keep them in business).

The perfect swimsuit… 

The perfect swimsuit means a flawless fit, bold patterns, and a return to slow fashion as the rule.

Follow Suit in three words…

Vibrant, Timeless, Worldly

Images courtesy of brand