Finding the right swimsuit is probably your worst nightmare, am I right? I always dread the season to shop for one because it is so hard to find one that fits just right, looks beautiful, and that I feel comfortable in.

I was scrolling through Instagram a while back and saw a friend post a picture of her swimsuit in preparation of going on holidays. It was super cute and I immediately looked up the company. I was surprised to see it was a swimwear line that was co-founded by a Wedding Photographer I have admired for quite some time. Needless to say after looking at their website and learning about what they stood for, I  immediately reached out.

The two ladies behind Londrë are dedicated to creating pieces that are sustainable and do not harm the environment, and I applaud this with all my heart. The world needs more businesses like this that take the environment into consideration with their processes. In addition to this important fact, they are absolutely lovely and so down to earth. It’s hard to believe that they haven’t known each other since birth considering how well they are connected; finishing each other’s sentences, giving the same answers and also the amount of laughter they share together. To top it all off, the pieces are not just meant for poolside – they look beautiful with every day outfits or night outs on the town! Talk about multi-functional! This is truly a line and business I stand behind and will continue to recommend.

So let’s get to it… allow me to introduce to you: Londrë.

LONDRË

RB: Can you tell my readers a bit about yourselves, where you’re from, etc.?

AR: My name is Ainsley and I’m from the North Shore. I completed a degree in Psychology with a focus on Biology and Psychology. I started writing a food blog as I was really into cooking. That passion from photographing the food I was cooking turned into my career as a photographer before launching Londrë and it’s still something I am interested in today. I have been travelling tons and taking a lot of photos which has worked really well for our company.

HT: My name is Hannah and I’m originally from the Yukon. I completed my university degree in Calgary on Communications and Culture. I actually completed my last semester of school in Singapore and then moved to Australia and worked for Lululemon. That’s where my passion started for this industry. I came back to Vancouver and taught Yoga for a few years and that is where we met! Ainsley did a photoshoot for my previous company called Yogabods and that’s where it all started. I now do Londrë full-time.

RB: What is your story as friends, how did you meet and become friends?

AR: I had been hearing about Hannah for a long time through a mutual friend. She kept saying “you have to meet this girl, Hannah you guys are going to get along so well!” I was like “pfft – who’s this Hannah”? I ended up doing a shoot for Hannah’s company with my friend and we quickly became friends. We went on our first friendship date which was great and knew we had a lot in common.

HT: We looked into each other’s eyes…and just knew! (Ha-ha)

RB: What inspired you to create Londrë Bodywear together?

AR: Hannah and I were working on a shoot together in Mexico. We were having a couple of margaritas on the beach, it’s the best way to think about your life goals when you are a little bit tipsy. We decided we wanted to do something that was for a greater purpose and combined our love for travel while being artistic in nature. We thought about how impossible it had been to find good swimwear that was still versatile before going on our trip so we decided we wanted to make the perfect one piece.

HT: As well, for both of us, sustainability has been a big part of our past. Ainsley worked on an organic farm in Turkey for a while, and growing up in the Yukon, it was a huge part of my schooling. It was part of my classes to go out in nature and learn about trees, etc. There was actually a course where we had to build a snow cave (it’s not an igloo) and we slept in it. So it’s always been a part of us and who we are so it’s been great to make that a huge part of our business as well.

RB: How do you pronounce this name?

Pronounced laun-drai

RB: And how did you select the name Londrë?

AR: Hannah and I had been on this amazing trip to London together. It’s one of our favourite cities and we felt it embodied the versatility of our company. We liked the sound of it.

HT: I have a French background. Some of my family is from Montreal and growing up in the Yukon there is a pretty big French community. I think it’s neat to blend languages especially in Canada since it is French and English. We wanted to make the name versatile and accessible to everyone.

RB: How long did you work on the launch of your collection?

HT: We call it our brain child because it literally took 9 months to “birth” our whole idea.

AR: It was 9 months of hard work. We were originally planning on starting our business based out of Bali because we wanted to live there. Manufacturing is really inexpensive and there’s really good manufacturing there. We tried to do that very unsuccessfully – It was such a mistake. Every disaster you could imagine happening – happened. Someone disappeared with our samples and our fabric right when we were starting out! We ended up coming back to Vancouver and I reconnected with someone I hadn’t seen in 14 years who has amazing manufacturing. They took us under their wings and gave us so much support. We are so happy because it’s really challenging to find solid manufacturing that produces amazing quality. We are really grateful we were able to find them.

HT: Especially locally, it’s really difficult to find that here in Vancouver.

AR: We are so happy because now we are a local company and to us, that is even better than enjoying drinks on the beach.

RB: When did you launch Londrë?

HT: We launched March 4, 2017.

RB: How did it feel launching your collection; were you excited or nervous?

AR: We were really excited! We had tested and pushed really hard to make sure that we felt amazing and that we were contributing something really useful to women, so we felt pretty confident in what we were putting into the world.

HT: We were nervous for our launch party though. We had our launch party in May along with The Glamoury and Party Skirts girls which ended up being really successful, but we did wonder if anyone was going to come. There were so many people that you could barely move around!

AR: Our friend Aly from Events by Aly planned our event and executed it flawlessly. It made our lives so easy. We wondered “why don’t we have anything to do right now”? But all we had to do was our hair and makeup and show up! Her work is amazing. RB: What was the most important thing you learned during the process?

RB: What was the most important thing you learned during the process?

AR: We’ve learned a lot. It’s been really incredible to see how important community is in what we are doing. The number of people that have come forward to support us has been so incredible. Having other amazing female entrepreneurs that are so supportive and available to lean on has been very helpful for us. Asking a lot of questions and reaching out to people has also been invaluable.

RB: Where did you get your inspiration from for your collection?

HT: Sayulita, Mexico is where we came up with the idea. We wanted to make women feel beautiful when they wore their swimsuit so we wanted to focus on making a design and shape that was flattering for all different body types – and weaving in the sustainability factor was huge for us.

AR: From an aesthetics perspective I love minimalism, and that’s part of what our brand embodies. We really value the idea that you can buy one garment and wear it a million different ways. By having something clean, classic and timeless, it’s not like a trendy piece that you will want to turf in a year. It is something that you will be using for a really long time. We had a lot of people try on our pieces to see how it worked on different body types.

RB: What were the main things that you wanted to achieve with your collection?

AR: We wanted to show that you don’t have to have certain aesthetic to be a great sustainable company. You can have incredible quality, if not better than a competitor who is producing garments that have a negative impact on the environment.

RB: How many styles do you currently offer?

HT: We have two different styles; the Minimalist and the Multi-Way. You can wear the Multi-Way seven different ways. We offer them in black or white.

RB: What about the fabric – I know the designs are pretty low cut, is everything staying “in”?

HT: The compression factor of the fabric really helps with that – to avoid that nip slip. We found that even with swimming and moving around a lot everything stays in really nicely. We had a young mom who bought a suit from us send us an email after a couple weeks saying how incredible it was for holding everything in when she was running after her three little kids.

AR: Hannah wore hers to play tennis a week ago so we really push the limits making sure they are locked in! Especially with the multi-way, it is quite supportive because you can tie it in such a way that it really emphasizes your waist and hugs everything in.

RB: How does your sizing run?

AR: Because it’s a compression garment we do recommend buying it as a fitted piece.

HT: I would say if you are a small at Aritzia, you would be a small for our suit. The one factor you have to take into consideration with our Minimalist design is the torso length. If you are really tall and have a long torso, you might want to size up just for the length.

RB: What type of material/fabric is used in your collection?

AR: It’s a compression material that comes from recycled bottles – which makes it sound like it feels like recycled bottles but it doesn’t. We have had people say it feels like silk when they put it on. It’s very soft, especially the interior and it’s a lot thicker than a usual swimsuit so it really does lock you in.

HT: It’s a polyester nylon blend. The inner fabric is slightly different than the outer fabric. The inside has a bit more polyester to make it a bit softer so it feels very luxurious. The outside is more compressive so it holds everything in nicely.

AR: The sustainability factor was really important for us and the fabric that we use has the highest Eco Certification that you can get for material. The factory is incredible and they use the least amount of water possible. Any water used in making a garment can be reused for other purposes. For example, a traditional denim company uses indigo dyes that end up going into waterways and polluting the water whereas ours doesn’t and that is something we wanted to stand behind. We also wanted to make sure that what we produced was something you can wear like a regular bodysuit so that you can wear it with dress pants. We had someone wear one to a black tie event with a beautiful skirt. We wanted to choose a matte fabric so that it was versatile.

HT: I remember when we first saw the fabric; we both looked at each other and said “this is the one!”

RB: How do you properly care for your product?

HT: We recommend hand washing and hanging to dry just for the longevity of it.

AR: I’m going to be honest, sometimes I put it in the washing machine and dryer and it’s been fine, but to be extra cautious we recommend hand washing.

RB: What is the cost of one of your pieces?

HT: Our Minimalist is $120 and our Multi-Way is $135. We wanted it to be an accessible price point for everyone especially when buying into something that is going to be timeless.

RB: I see your collection is available at Fairmont Pacific Rim and Turf, do you have any plans of expanding to other stores?

AR: We have been really selective as to who we want to wholesale with in the sense that we are only interested in working with companies who have a really good brand alignment with what we are doing. We just had an inquiry from the Netherlands from someone doing a cool green collection, so we may be stocking with them, but primarily our business is online.

HT: It’s interesting because when we first started doing our business we only wanted to be online, but the relationships we’ve grown have come organically which has worked really well for us.

RB: What are your plans for expanding the styles and colours in your collection?

HT: We talk about that a lot! We are currently working on a new shape which is on the DL. We are working on a two piece, as we have had many inquiries from clients on this style, and we are aiming for late November. We are gradually going to be offering different colours, but for us, it’s really important to keep to that minimalist vibe.

As noted above you can find their collection at Fairmont Pacific Rim and Turf,  but you can also purchase online via their website: https://londrebodywear.com/

Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Let’s get to know these wonderful ladies personally!

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So what are you waiting for… go check them out and add a piece to your wardrobe that is multi-functional that will remain timeless and current years from now.

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