Gabi Fresh and Mama Cax Star In Gabi’s Latest Swimsuits For All Campaign
Summer may be a few months away but it’s never too early to start stocking up on swimwear, especially when it’s a GabiFresh collab. For a few years, plus-size blogger Gabi Gregg has been teaming up with Swimsuits for All to create comfortable and trendy swimwear for women of all sizes — and 2020 is no exception.
So far, Gabi and Swimsuits for All have released collections featuring anything from retro '60 suits to fun prints. For the Resort 2020 capsule collection, the blogger looked at animal print for inspiration.
The animal print trend has been on the rise as of late but curvy and plus-size girls rarely get to rock it because of the lack of clothing made in our sizes. Gabi, however, intentionally designs with those women in mind. “I naturally design for curvy women because, obviously, I am curvy and I am plus size," she tells Teen Vogue. "My perspective is coming from the customer first. I know how hard it is to find cute swimwear, that's why we started the collection all those years ago. A natural part of my design process is keeping in mind the fact that I am designing for a certain type of woman.” And, it shows.
The eight-piece collection, available in sizes 10 to 26 with cup sizes ranging from D/DD to G/H, features from high-waist bikinis with bright belted bottoms to faux leather bottoms (because who wouldn’t want to rock leather on the beach?) and underwire tops that actually hold the girls up (we all know finding busty-friendly swimwear is a job within itself). And while the pieces are all cohesively trendy and edgy, Gabi admits that she designs "individual pieces.”
The process of creating this particular collection stemmed from her love of animal print. “I always loved animal prints but I was super drawn to it this season," Gabi says. "I found myself wanting to do that more and more. I started with the leopard and then I also really want to do a crocodile print because I haven't seen that before.” Infatuated with the print, before she knew it, her design process had a theme and the trendy pieces came together to form one bomb Resort collection. “I'm always trying to push the envelope thinking about what trends are popular right now, what I would like to see in my size but I don't see,” Gabi says about the collection.
From the blue crocodile one-piece (complete with a white statement belt) to the ribbed red high-waist bikini with a material that will soothe and smooth out the body to flatter the curves, Gabi hit every trend she possibly could with this collection. She tells Teen Vogue that “fit and support” were her two main priorities.
Shopping for swimsuits as a curvy girl can be a hard task, so knowing that a designer is prioritizing your personal shopping needs is a huge deal. This is what makes Gabi’s line so important and necessary year after year. Gabi’s success in past Swimsuits For All collections, her careful design process, and thoughtfulness of her customer proves her dedication to truly designing with plus size women in mind and not making them an afterthought. “With this collection, I really want [plus size women] to know that they are the priority and I'm thinking about them in the design process and I want them to feel confident and happy when they go to their outing whether it's the beach, or the pool, or whatever it is,” she tells us.
To accompany the collection's launch, Swimsuits for All is also launching a stunning campaign, shot in the hot Yucca Valley desert to highlight the animal prints. For it, Gabi posed alongside model Veronica Pome’e and late model and activist Mama Cax.
As one of Mama Cax’s last campaigns, Swimsuits for All “hopes these images from one of her final projects will bring joy to those she knew,” the brand said in a press release. “Her energy, passion, and unwavering positivity are just a few of the qualities the brand sought to convey with this new campaign.” Gabi certainly agrees. “I felt so grateful that I got to work with her before she passed because she is someone who I look to you as an inspiration,” she told Teen Vogue. The sudden loss of Mama Cax saddened all of us, but it's beautiful to watch her legacy live on through inspiring campaigns like this one.
Ultimately, if buyers take just one thing from this collection, Gabi wants them to receive the message of each model in the campaign living “authentically in [their] bodies in a way that hopefully inspires others to do the same.” Seeing these fierce women wearing a sultry animal print swimsuit should immediately spark the same confidence to be authentic and confident in your body. Or maybe it doesn't, but it's certainly a good start!
All eight pieces from Gabi's collection retail for under $120. Shop some of our favorites (and start planning your summer trips) below:
Crocodile Print One-Piece
$108.00, Swimsuits For All
Navigator High Waist Bikini
$88.00, Swimsuits For All
Valiant High Waist Swimsuit
$88.00, Swimsuits For All
Wildcat One Piece
$108.00, Swimsuits For All
Primal High Waist Bikini
$88.00, Swimsuits For All
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
