By 
SWIMWEAR WAS ONCE a uniform of function. Albeit a leisurely function. Something you pulled on before plunging into water and abandoned, dripping, the moment you returned to land. But in the modern meaning of both uniform and function, along with the lexicon of dress, has shifted into something more complex. A ritual of escape.
Swim shorts and resortwear no longer signal the shift into downtime but merge into the social. They are as much about the anticipation of salt-rimmed cocktails and sun-bleached afternoons as they are about the act of swimming itself.
This transformation owes much to English brand Orlebar Brown. Founded in London in 2007, the label looked at swim shorts not as elastic-waisted afterthoughts but as something to be cut with the precision of a trouser.
Side fasteners, structured waistbands, darts – all details borrowed from tailoring but designed to withstand the pull of waves and chlorine. It was a re-engineering that elevated a garment into a signifier. Worn with a polo or linen shirt, the shorts could take you from poolside to bar without a costume change.
Orlebar Brown saw the way men’s wardrobes had loosened, and would continue to do so for the next two decades. Formality became fractured and in its place came garments that blurred boundaries: city sneakers on the red carpet, denim in the boardroom, and tailored shorts fit for a lunch reservation.
Swimwear, too, has been reframed. More than a tool for immersion, it is a cue that the wearer has stepped outside routine and into another rhythm, whether that rhythm is a week in Capri or a weekend on Bondi.
In doing so, Orlebar Brown captured the essence of luxury leisure. Not excess, but intent: clothing designed for the liminal space between exertion and ease, between Bond diving from a yacht and a man walking barefoot from surf to spritz. The brand set a template now echoed widely, where swimwear doubles as resortwear and resortwear doubles as a philosophy. That the act of dressing for water is also dressing for freedom, for pause, for the theatre of leisure itself.
Photography: Chris Gurney
Styling and creative direction: Grant Pearce
Grooming: Kristyan Low
Talent: Eitan Marchand
Words: Benjamen Judd
All clothing and accessories by Orlebar Brown
