Malibu raised swimwear designer and founder of Frankies Bikinis, Francesca Aiello speaks to Underlines about her inspirations and plans for the future of the brand. The youngest designer to ever showcase a collection at Miami Swim Week, Francesca’s designs have been worn by supermodels and celebrities including Gigi Hadid, Alessandra Ambrosio and Kylie Jenner.
Why swimwear/beachwear?
Growing up in Malibu on the beach I lived in bikinis only, so it was always something I was passionate about. From a young age I was designing custom bikinis for myself because I wanted them a certain way that wasn’t offered on the market at the time – in 2012 we decided to make it official and started Frankies Bikinis.
What is different about designing swimwear?
It’s a little more challenging because you’re always trying to create new concepts on such a small piece of fabric. The fit has to be perfect, you can’t get away with any imperfections and need to make sure it works for all body types.
Where do you get your ideas/inspiration?
I’m always looking at strong trends that are going on in high fashion and seeing how we can incorporate them into our swimwear designs, so we can keep them exciting for our customers and create things that you won’t see with any other swim brand.
Any other ambitions in design?
We’ve been working on our new sister brand Aiello that just launched, we wanted to expand into ready-to-wear for our customers asking for additional pieces to complete the look with their bikinis. We’ve just finished designing season two and are really excited about it, we want to keep expanding and creating new styles and make things that have never been done before in the swim industry.
Launching in November, the new Resort 2019 collection from Frankies Bikinis is based on the idea that women don’t just have one style, and can drift from ultra-sporty tomboy to the flirty girl next door all with the change of a bikini. The collection embodies this free spirt, juxtaposing ruffles and prints with block colours and higher cuts, featuring black and bright blue cherry blossom prints inspired by Japan, neon pinks and yellows straight from the billboards of Tokyo as well as khaki, sky blue and burgundy shades that have been inspired by the national park of Nikko.
