Hey luv bugs. So these fabulous pink Superstar Bikinis we have here on Luv Label...like all great ideas, they were inspired from good research and reference. I believe it is very important for artists and creators in general to be familiar with the past, even better specific eras that you identify with. So I was looking for rhinestone bikinis originally in my google search bar but that was just taking me through an endless dark hole of, well, rhinestone bikinis. I was getting search results from Etsy, Shein and just pretty much other sites that were selling rhinestone bikinis. Instead, I typed in "rhinestone swimwear 90s runway" and boom, I found my sweet spot.
I stumbled upon this photo of Claudia Schiffer walking a Chanel runway from 1995 and it was all I needed.
I mean, holy fucking shit these bikinis were stunning. They were all Swarovski embellished, thong style bikini bottoms and designed by Karl Lagerfeld. I was curious if these blingkinis were available for purchases and oh yes they are, for up to $12,000 as an archive piece.
I had my inspiration and I knew what I'd like the end result to be...sounds easy right? Well, these bikinis were my first go at conducting the whole cut & sew production process and it was not easy. I designed these bikinis from scratch and the fit was so important to me as I was going for a petite cup like I saw that Chanel runway. It took four months and 8 samples for the fit to be where I wanted and when I picked up the final batch of bikinis I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs and burn my pattern makers building down.
Everything was sewn wrong
I had created rhinestone templates for the bikinis and long story short, they wouldn't work anymore. I had about 30 bikini sets in total after tossing the sum of them out and I had to hand stone each of them. It is what it is and this whole process is about learning for next time.
I'd like to tell you that the Superstar Bikinis are embellished with vintage Preciosa glass stones from the Czech Republic. Swarovski stones are way out of my price range as a small business owner...for now. They fit beautifully just as I wanted.
I'll be sharing more content with you guys here about Luv Label and eventually I'll get down to where this whole Luv thing originated from for me. Everything is a story, thank you for being part of this one.
Luv forever,
Niz