With her characteristic eye for vintage detail and sartorial storytelling, Emily Adams Bode Aujla introduces a new swimwear line for Spring/Summer 2025 that blends modern minimalism with nostalgic glamour. Drawing on references from the 1920s to the 1970s, Bode Rec. brings thoughtful design and a historian’s touch to the beach.
Swimwear meets fashion history
In a season that calls for sun, salt, and style, Bode is making its official plunge into swimwear. For Spring/Summer 2025, designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla expands her storytelling-driven brand with a line that feels both archival and refreshingly new. Presented during an atmospheric runway show in New Orleans earlier this year—her first after a brief hiatus—the collection proves that a trip to the beach can also be a journey through fashion history.
The swimwear is part of Bode Rec., a sub-line that plays with athletic and recreational styles. For men, the highlights include swim briefs that nod to mid-century Speedos, reimagined with a cleaner silhouette and luxurious fabrics. For women, the offerings draw heavily from 1970s silhouettes: high-cut bikinis adorned with tonal logo waistbands, and maillots trimmed in playful rickrack with low scooped backs and elegant shoulder ties. Each piece is crafted from recycled polyamide and elastane, grounding vintage inspiration in present-day sustainability.
What sets this collection apart is its sense of time-travel. Instead of replicating retro styles, Bode filters them through a modern lens, allowing materials and cuts to reference but not repeat the past. The result is nostalgic, but not costume-like—a true mark of the designer’s hand.
The cotton-alpaca curveball
One of the most unexpected—and intriguing—pieces in the collection is the cotton-alpaca one-piece swimsuit. At first glance, it’s more reminiscent of early 20th-century athletic uniforms than contemporary swimwear. But that’s precisely the point. With side cutouts designed to reduce drag in the water, the piece recalls 1920s-era swim innovations that predated the invention of stretch fabrics.
This fusion of heritage and utility underscores Bode’s commitment to function, not just form. While many swimwear lines today prioritize only the visual, Bode digs deeper, asking how garments have historically served the body in motion. The inclusion of a seemingly impractical alpaca blend is less about poolside practicality and more about provoking thought—a nod to the kind of garments worn before synthetic elasticity redefined performance wear.
As with the rest of the brand, there’s always a conversation between the garment and the context in which it exists. Here, Bode isn’t just making swimwear—she’s reintroducing it as a chapter in the long and evolving narrative of leisurewear.
Beyond the beach: building a summer wardrobe
While swimwear is the star of the Spring/Summer 2025 launch, it’s only part of the larger picture. True to Bode’s mission of building a complete and intentional wardrobe, the collection also includes an array of summer-ready essentials that feel artisanal yet unfussy.
Fisherman sandals ground the look in tactile craftsmanship, while soft polos and lightweight printed trousers bring a casual elegance suited for city strolls or coastal escapes. The color palette remains earthy and sun-washed—think terracotta, faded denim, and washed-out sage—adding to the sense of items that are lived-in rather than labored-over.
This broader offering helps position Bode as more than a cult menswear label. While the brand began with one-of-a-kind vintage-inspired tailoring, it has steadily evolved into a lifestyle proposition—one that embraces travel, nostalgia, and thoughtful design across categories. With this summer drop, the brand moves confidently into the realm of casualwear, without sacrificing its core identity.
Where modernity meets memory
In the age of maximalism and algorithm-chasing trends, Bode continues to move at its own pace, crafting garments that feel intentionally out of time. The new swimwear line is not trying to be viral. It’s trying to be timeless. It succeeds by looking back—not as a gimmick, but as a way to deepen the meaning behind the garments we wear.
Emily Adams Bode Aujla has long been celebrated for her meticulous research and reverence for antique textiles and silhouettes. With this latest collection, she shows that even the most utilitarian pieces—swimsuits, sandals, polos—can carry with them the weight of history and the joy of reinvention. It’s a reminder that design, at its best, is not just about what we wear, but why.
