Anyone going to Art Basel in mid-June might want to pick up a limited edition artist-designed swimsuit in which to display their credentials while sipping coffee and aperitifs in the balmy European weather.
Former jewelry designer Cecile Casablancas, (daughter of the late Elite model agency founder John Casablancas and sister of The Strokes’s Julian) had a career-changing epiphany a couple of summers ago. “I was spending a lot of time with artists out in Orient”—the village at the tip of Long Island’s North Fork is a magnet for painters and sculptors drawn to the light and the bucolic landscape—”and we were swimming and boating,” she says. “The idea was born to collaborate on some fantastic, original designs to hang out in that would provide an alternative to regular brands, which can be so generic.”
She gave her first group of chosen artists carte blanche, and welcomed their input on cut, though, she says, “the shapes we decided on are essentially really simple and minimal because the prints are often colorful and exuberant.” Caitlin Keogh, Jim Drain, Bozidar Brazda, and Servane Mary indeed produced pieces that have more depth and visual interest— with perhaps a touch of weirdness—than your average suit, and come in high-quality fabric and very wearable styles. Launched late last year, they retail for around $300 each on Casablancas’s website, Orientny.com.
