Swim Society Search : Shoot Day!

As many of you who will know this year we launched our first open casting as a sustainable brand. We were overwhelmed by the response we had and were lucky enough to meet so many incredible women as part of our search.

In case you missed out on that you can go back and read our full BTS blog here.

At the end of that we revealed that we had selected five amazing women to be part of a real life campaign, that would form a part of our second collection launch. So now we bring you the full behind the scenes of our actual shoot day for the imagery you’re probably looking at right now!

Our shoot took place in London and our fabulous women came from all over the UK to not only shoot with us but reunite after forming such strong bonds at the open casting days. So lets tell you a little about each of our glorious models.

Cora

Cora instantly took our breath away from the very first image she tagged us in, in order to enter. Not only did she embody the confidence we want those to feel when wearing Swim Society, she was showcasing one of our Maldives collection pieces! From the moment we all met Cora, we felt instantly connected to her infectious energy. She brings such vibrancy to a room and her spirit is undeniable. Cora told us that her reasoning for entering our casting was to go some way in representing trans women in mainstream media. As a trans women, she felt that it would be an amazing way to thank her body and honour the feeling of happiness she feels at being authentically who she is.

Tanesa

Tanesa’s energy was evident from the moment we saw her entry video. Full of confidence and power we knew we had to have her. In her day to day life, Tanesa is usually on the other end of the camera organising marketing shoots so for her this was a role reversal but looking at our images you would NEVER know it! She embodies everything Swim Society has always been about and is a women blessed with a naturally big bust she’s struggled like many of our community to find swimwear that is comfortable without compromising on style.

Anna

Anna’s smile was undeniable. She radiated that happiness and positivity we’re always looking for as a brand. Anna has had a permanent ileostomy for 10 years, due to a chronic condition that required life altering surgery 10 years ago. As you’ll know from our casting and our subsequent blog with Amy here, we met so many amazing women who suffered with chronic conditions during our open casting and each had their own story to tell. Anna, was one of those women, so open and willing to educate, to talk and to share how we can all change the way we view womens bodies and what we have been taught to consider as ‘normal’. Her radiant energy just made us all feel so at ease and you can’t help but smile around her!

Gabriella

Our welsh princess. Full of smiles and the most hilarious one liners. Gab doesn’t even know how special she is. Just take one look at her Instagram and you’ll see her body confidence is infectious. She told us she was really in it to have an amazing experience but also to show that anyone can wear a bikini and should never feel discouraged or out of place be others around them. Gab bodies every single shots and she like all the other girls has been such an amazing support in our community.

Alexandria

Alex was our only girl to not actually attend our casting in person! Due to covid travel restrictions at the time, we knew we had to meet her regardless so we met Alex over zoom. When I tell you, we cried together. It sounds bizarre to say it, but we connected with her instantly and everything she told us about her journey just touched us, like all the other girls we’d met in person. Alex detailed to us her lifelong struggle with body image, which at one time was so severe it led her to depression and eating disorders which almost took her life. However, with some serious inner work and some great energy around her she wanted to be part of our shoot to embody the confidence she now feels in her body. And, well, the images speak for themselves.

So with all of our fantastic women ready with some help from our fantastic glam team (Dom Seeley Hair, Lielle Neury Make Up) we started shooting.

Here’s just a selection of some of the incredible imagery we took on the idea, shot by our very special Ines Coleman.

Throughout the day, we all felt a real positive energy. The focus of our shoot was to give the women an experience outside of their day to day and alongside that build them up as the wonderful campaign girls they all deserve to be. Our open casting from start to finish has been one of the most rewarding things we could have done as a brand, not only did we achieve our goal of representing as many different body shapes as possible but we gained something much more important. We gained genuine connection to these women and we know they’ll be a part of our journey for the foreseeable.