Beautiful Beach Bikinis

The owner and founder of La Isla Couture, Enrique Sanchez-Rivera, was gracious enough to grant us an exclusive interview. Read on to learn more about this innovative swim wear company, as well as where you can purchase these beautiful beach bikinis year round.

Enrique Shares Background About La Isla Couture

La Isla Couture was founded in 2004, after a trip to my hometown of Cali, Colombia. My sister, Ana Luisa, who learned beading and embroidery from our mother from the time she was a child, was making these intricately embroidered and embellished bikinis, and they completely caught my attention.

I thought that the hand beading and embellishment that she and her seamstress friends were doing was stunning! I was working as a photographer testing models in New York City for a world renowned agent, and my exposure to couture fashion was huge. I realized my sister's work could stand up next to anything on the New York market, and I suggested to her that I bring samples to show stores here in the U.S. She agreed, and next thing we knew, we were filling out invoices, purchase orders, and starting to do PR with some magazines. We did get that initial "resistance" that almost every new designer gets in the market, but we focused on the encouraging comments and people, and it all worked out for the best.

We had to make the suit designs bigger to fit the American buyer. Bikinis in South America are in fact "itsy bitsy". We tend to be very liberal when it comes to beachwear, but that is not a complaint!

After several years, I met Cedella Marley, Bob Marley's daughter, and one of her designers, April Beiter. Cedella had commissioned me to make some bathing suits for Ms. Jamaica for the Miss Universe pageant, and April and I really understood each other well.

After April left Catch a Fire, Cedella's company, I asked her to join La Isla and take a 3% equity interest in the company, and she did. Now April is our Director of Design. She went to school in London and worked with Anna Sui, Cedella and other incredible designers. We work together extremely well, and she brings along wonderful experience in design and art direction.

Since the company was founded in Colombia, South America, how much does the Latin culture influence your designs?

Though our main designer, April, is a true American girl, my sister and I have a lot of input. Our embroidery, done 100% in Colombia, very much evokes Latin culture, colors and emotions. We capture a lot of our culture in our suits. This year we made both an embroidered Peacock suit and a Butterfly suit made of sequins.

I grew up seeing a lot of peacocks in our farms and that inspired us. It brings back great childhood memories. Colombia has one of the richest, if not the richest varieties of butterflies in the world, and that was inspiration for the other suit. Our childhood, as well as our flora and fauna are part of our wonderful culture, which we work with constantly.

Your swimsuits have such fun, inventive names! How do you choose the names for your bikinis and one-piece suits?

Inventive . . . you used the right word! We usually think of a theme or two and use elements of those particular themes to name the suits. This year was all about sexy, water, fiction and delicious things (like cheesecake). We have way too much fun with our line - somebody stop us!

Can you explain your design process?

• A great example of this is our Uproar bikini, on page 3 of the bikini section at our website. Susan, our fabric designer, had this idea of making a fabric print based on old soda bottle caps. April looked at some vintage clothing pieces and trim, and came up with using the roundness of a bottle cap to play with different o-rings she had available.

Eventually she decided to place the o-rings in the bottoms and top of the swimsuit, in a vintage bikini style. She updated the style and made the cut suitable for our decade. After completing the prototype, I suggested we put a lot of color into the bottle caps that were to become the fabric, so that the suit made sense with our other very colorful prints and solid colors.

• The first step is to make sure everyone understands the common themes we are working with, and then, using one of our designer’s inspirations, we all pitch in to come up with the right combination of ideas. After this, our fabric is finished in our design software program and sent to the mill in Colombia. In the meantime, the sketch April designs is passed on to our engineer at our factory and between him and our head seamstress, we make the technical specification sheet and the patterns. This allows any of our seamstresses to manufacture the suit, since they all have the same "map".
• Once the patterns are made and the fabric has been shipped to our factory, we literally cut the fabric with our laser cutting machine by following the specifications given. Once all parts of the suit are cut, we distribute the suits between the seamstresses and they sew the pieces. If the suit is embroidered, then the embroidery is done first.

After the suits are sewn, they are checked in three different stations for quality control, then tagged, packaged and boxed for shipping and exported. It sounds easy, but there are lots of minds and hands involved.

What do you envision for La Isla Couture’s future?

Beautiful beach bikinis available at La Isla Couture

We just got picked up for the Urban Outfitters', Free People catalog and website, and Sports Illustrated will feature one of our suits for their 2008 swimsuit issue. Our bathing suit is going to be body painted on a super model - how wonderful!

We also have expanded our distribution to Mexico, Canada, the Middle East and the French Riviera. Now, we are looking to expand into other types of beachwear and apparel, including a petite swim wear line for girls ages 7 to 14. This has been a very successful extension of our brand.

For summer 2008, we will launch a men's line of board shorts and T-shirts under the name La Isla. Our logo is a very cool-looking gold scorpion. We already have distribution partners for it and foresee a great future. This line is a high-end line for guys who really appreciate a good quality garment and are tired of your average surf shorts.

Enrique shared with us how he gives back to the community and the world.

La Isla donates a portion of all proceeds to the Surfrider Foundation (San Clemente, CA), and we look forward to increasing our participation with them and other organizations that protect our oceans and our wildlife. We also are looking into donating funds to charitable organizations in Colombia. We don't want our business if we cannot contribute a little grain of sand to those in need.

Where can people buy La Isla Couture swim wear and accessories?

La Isla Couture is available through our website. If you prefer to buy at a store, you can view a list of some of our stores by clicking on the "find a store" link on the top right hand corner of our site. Beginning in April 2008, you will also be able to find us at www.freepeople.com.

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions about your company’s beautiful beach bikinis.

Thank you, and we would also like to thank all of those who have believed in our brand since the beginning, including the industry professionals who helped us get our feet in the door, the stores carrying our line and the customers who wear our designs.