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SUSTAINABILITY. ENVIRONMENT. EXPERIMENT.
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STYLE

Dive into cleaner waters. MEDINA, sustainable swimwear for the 21st century woman. WORDS_ Charlie Newman, PHOTOS_ Julia Kennedy

STYLE_ Toyo Tsuchiya, MAKE-UP AND HAIR_ Marianna Easter, TALENT_ Ololade @ Established Models

On the surface, Lou Medina appears to be your archetypal cool girl, complete with perfectly undone hair, oversized tailoring and the gentle jangling of jewellery, after all she’s learnt from the very best. Lou’s fashion credentials are what Devil Wears Prada dreams are made of. Straight out of fashion school in Milan, Lou interned at Alexander McQueen where she conquered digital design. After uploading her portfolio to the LVMH group, she was quickly snapped up by Celine.

“It was my dream job after university because in my early years as a teenager, it’s not like I wanted to be a fashion designer. I loved everything about fashion, the styling, the photography, making, sewing, everything. At Celine in the Creative Atelier with Phoebe Philo I really got to experiment.”

Lou was particularly motivated by her team leader at Celine, Norman Rene De Vera “the most determined and confident creative that I have ever met. He inspired me every day and still does.”

At university Lou relished her courses direction on “The technology of materials. It was very focussed on high tech fibres, pattern making and computer illustration.” At Philo’s base in London, Lou could marry her three passions when creating the samples for the Celine design team. “Everything had to be a texture or a patchwork, everything had to be created from scratch. Everything was tailored but not only for the body but also in volume, how to hide the stitches and create volume. That’s where I actually got my inspiration and I saw that swimwear didn’t have that.”

Once Philo left so too did Lou, using her newfound freedom as an opportunity to travel. It was whilst she was away that she discovered a gap in the market when it came to swimwear. Wherever Lou went, admirers flocked, asking where her clothes and swimwear were from, to which she would reply the ultimate cool girl response, “It’s vintage.” The magic of vintage lies in its classic allure, which Lou has translated into her seamless swimwear for the 21st century woman. At her namesake brand Medina, you’ll discover the sleek bond girl pieces in the SS22 collection and the sporty, buckled pieces in the core collection. “For the style it was more about timeless design that would also last” she explains. Whilst Lou envisions experimenting “With more editorial pieces in the future”, it is the core collection that acts as “The bones” of Medina, “They’re about investing in pieces you can also wear out of the beach.”

Slipping on a Medina swimsuit immediately makes you stand taller, not out of self awareness but out of self confidence, it’s the equivalent of shrugging on a trusty blazer.

At the Celine atelier Lou became obsessed with “The quality of the product, how it’s made, the interior. If you have seen a Celine interior, the bindings and everything is so clean” and a Medina swimsuit offers you just that.

Unlike the lofty heights of high fashion, Medina feels more approachable (and affordable.) You can feel Lou’s admiration not only for design but for the female form.

“I wanted to make one for my friend Moral who is an artist, I want to have one for my friend Jemima that likes to party or one for my Mum, my Grandma, or something that you could also wear with trousers.”

It was Lou’s Grandma and Mum who first opened her eyes to the world of fashion with their boutique. “They would fix everything to fit so since I was very little I knew how to sew.” Whilst Lou’s “Always worked in the garment industry”, swimwear was completely new territory.

With no contacts to help guide her, Lou set off “Looking at factories in Italy, then in the second year I was scammed by all of the factories. They asked for money, then didn’t deliver the right quality of the right things, and they made me wait.”

Finally she found her feet with a small laboratory in Italy, sharing the space with the La Perla pattern maker.

Lou’s unique approach to design has both hindered and helped Medina, for there is not an existing path to follow that meets  her standards, she explains, “It was very, very hard not having a mentor.” Pattern makers tried to simplify her designs but Lou could show them how to make them once she got her hands on the machines.

You might think the smaller the item the easier to make but that’s not the case,

“Swimwear is so complex, it takes eight different machines minimum. The amount of machines used for garments are far less.”

When picturing the stereotypical designer, you might envisage them furiously sketching their designs on exaggerated and elongated forms, but Lou’s design process is a far cry from this. Her face lights up when describing the technicalities and challenges of being a sustainable designer.

Lou was compelled to go down the environmental route after seeing the reams of rubbish on the coastline during her travels.

For Medina’s first collection in 2019, Lou partnered with the Ocean Clean Up Project and has continued to support initiatives that embark “On the same path as me, raising awareness of our mission, our ethos and values.” You can swim in peace wearing Medina, for three percent of their sales are donated to non-profit organisations that are committed to the conservation and sustainable use of their coastal marine ecosystem. 

When it comes to sustainable fabric the “Materials are very limited.” The only current available option is to use Econyl, a yarn made entirely from recovered fishnets and other nylon waste. 

Econyl has transformed the fashion market, offering an infinitely recyclable material that creates a closed loop of regenerated fibres. That being said, it doesn’t “Give you many options in texture. That’s why I created my own smocked texture, the wrinkle, the over sized ruche. I started to experiment with the fabric I use into another fabric. So I’m now making macramé with the nets, and I’m also working on my own beachwear pieces which are kind of like outer wear pieces and accessories…Technical, cool handmade things with the fabric.” Lou sticks to her roots, constantly working on “Reinventing the fabric, reinventing the way of seeing the same fabric…I like to have something like a sculpture, like working with Play-Doh, making shapes to see how many options we have.”

Innovation is at the core of Medina and will no doubt carry the brand into future collections. Lou remains transparent about the environmental impacts of Medina.

“It’s so hard to communicate as a green designer without being mistaken for greenwashing.”

Every business decision is seen through an environmentally friendly lens, from choosing not to show on the rigorous and relentless fashion calendar, to producing small, custom made orders, to making everything in Europe, to keeping the headquarters and manufacturers in Porto, Medina is meticulously designing for a better future. Her next green goal is to start offering a recycling programme for old swimsuits, “Medina is a company that is always going to adapt to change and help with the problem, let’s find a solution.”

It’s not just the swimwear and manufacturing sector that Lou is making waves in, but she is also a pioneer for female design. Frustratingly she finds herself often not “Getting taken seriously.” When working at Celine nobody doubted her, “But as soon as you say you’re a swimwear designer without knowing my work, they’re more patronising. But I touch on so many different sustainable angles and for me it’s about maintaining that and improving it.”

Medina’s slow and steady growth has responded well with customers. Despite being such a young brand, Medina survived the pandemic. Lou is extremely grateful to all of her retailers who didn’t cancel their orders, “They supported everything, they kept it alive so we could continue making a collection…It’s empowering the business woman side of me.” Again Lou disrupts the system when it comes to suppliers.

“The pandemic hit the suppliers very hard and as a result the small brands even harder because factories don’t make contracts with small brands. Big retailers don’t sign your agreements that support the production, that’s something I’m trying to fight with, to go against the fashion system.”

Whatever the delays, international retailers including Koibird, El Cortes Inglés and Vasquiat can’t get enough of Medina’s “UV-proof, chlorine resistant yet luxuriously supple suits that are built to endure long term use and to outlast trends.” When asked who she would love to see wearing Medina, Lou is stumped for answers, preferring real people who are in love with their pieces. She sights happy customer and 78 year old Grandma who “Was surprised by how comfortable” her one piece was. However, Medina’s stage is far from quaint, no other than Pamela Anderson, the queen of the one piece, favours Medina’s Vendetta and Seaquest pieces.

Like Lou herself, Medina is small but mighty. Dive into cleaner waters wearing Medina.

Julia Kennedy