DOS Swim
DOS Swim
Shay Johnson and Paula Hess founded DOS SWIM in 2019. 5 years earlier they had met working at Opening Ceremony; Shay — who was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Atlanta, Georgia — was working as a producer for the company, while Paula — who was born in Germany and raised by a Colombian mother — was working there as a designer. Traveling was always their thing, they went to India, Mexico, Morocco, Colombia, Europe and the Caribbean together, picking up textiles, colorways and inspiration along the way.
Earlier this year, they started making swimsuits for an upcoming trip they were taking to Tulum, Mexico. They wanted swimsuits that actually fit right, celebrated their bodies, made them feel confident and expressed their love for color. Their first collection was based on their personal favorite styles, everything they design are pieces they themselves want to wear. So they went to the Garment District in New York City, picked out cool fabrics and started cutting. After that, the requests came in, mostly from friends over Instagram.
Starting a brand was never the main focus; they wanted to create something for themselves and their friends. Finding the right fit was always so hard for their respective body shapes. Bottoms, specifically, were always a point of contention, they were either too low on the leg or too high, exposing too much or too little. They wanted to fix that.
