RELLECIGA: a Paris atelier that makes swimwear and nothing else

RELLECIGA is an atelier in Paris that makes swimwear and nothing else. Not swimwear alongside dresses, not a summer capsule inside a bigger wardrobe. One garment, in a lot of cuts and a lot of colours.

That sounds like a limitation and it works as the opposite. A house that makes forty categories treats a swimsuit as one of forty problems. A swimsuit is the hardest garment in a wardrobe to get right, and it repays the whole of somebody's attention.

Think about what it is asked to do. Hold a body that is moving, in water, then out of it. Survive chlorine, salt and sun cream. Dry overnight on a balcony. Still look like something on the second week of a holiday. Nothing else in a suitcase is asked for all four at once.

So the order of work here runs cut first, fit second, colour last. A print sells a swimsuit in a photograph and the pattern decides whether it gets worn twice or thirty times. That order is why the same shapes come back season after season in new colourways instead of being replaced by new shapes every spring.

The atelier is careful about what it claims. We design swimwear and we sell it. We do not weave the fabric and we do not run a dye house, so you will not read here that our looms run through the night. What we can tell you is how a piece is cut, what it covers, how much it holds and where it is going to disappoint you.

That last part matters more in swimwear than in anything else, because the failure modes are specific and almost nobody prints them. A bandeau does not stay up in surf. A string triangle carries very little weight. Pale fabric goes translucent when it is wet. Saying so costs a sale now and again and saves a return every time.

Colour is the second decision and a real one. Ask somebody what they are looking for and the answer is rarely a silhouette: it is black, or that green, or leopard. So a shade is repeated across cuts on purpose, and shades run in batches, which means two pieces bought months apart will be close rather than identical. That is how dyeing works, and it is better written here than discovered holding a top against a bottom.

Payment, delivery and returns are handled by our retail partner at checkout rather than by us. If a piece arrives wrong, their returns process is the fastest route, and you can write to the atelier as well. Somebody here reads it.