the starters
the starters
SKINNI
Meryll Yan of SKINNI provides women of all stripes the confidence to embrace life’ s adventures with an all-inclusive swimwear line
Interview Vida Cruz photography Dookie Ducay
Of all the clothing you could design for adventurous women, why the swimsuit?
I have always believed that the space for an entrepreneur is where their personal passion intersects with a public need. I have always loved swimsuits and have been collecting them since I was a teenager. However, when I went on adventures with my now-husband, I realized that a lot of the swimwear I owned could not withstand the conditions that we went through( e. g. waterfall climbing in Aguinuid, snorkeling in Oslob, surfing in La Union, etc). The Philippines is home to some of the world’ s best beaches, so it makes perfect sense( even if it might seem overly ambitious) to also design the best swimsuits in the world. There was a very interesting space where those two overlapped and the spirit behind SKINNI is that you can be adventurous and fashionable at the same time. And that one is not a prerequisite to the other. I chose swimwear because it is a product I know by heart, and it could also represent our country in all of its tropical postcard beauty.
And if I must add another intersection to make this a Venn diagram, as a former fashion editor and retail marketer, I longed to do something that would be more inclusive and empowering. A category like swimwear can be so daunting for women and I wanted to change that by creating a brand that promoted body positivity and the kind of values that I think women aspire for.
Could you describe the kinds of women you designed the SKINNI swimsuits for?
Haha, I am lucky enough to be surrounded by a tribe of amazing women— women who are strong, beautiful, multi-faceted and complex, so I did not have to look far for inspiration. It was a tall order, but it gave us a very clear picture of who we were making SKINNI for. These are women who know themselves and who are not afraid to take risks; they are the ones who look at the mirror and love their bodies. They are women who are unique and different from the cookie cutter norms one might see on mainstream media or fashion. However, what ties everyone together is a sense of self-knowledge and confidence. My favorite anecdote is how my muses previously did not know each other but they emerged from our three-day shoot as a sisterhood. Everyone just clicked with each other and that’ s because each one of them represents the kind of values we want for SKINNI.
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