About Us
Get to know our company
My name is Santiago and I am the English Speaking Guy at Santa Lucia Swim. Every authentic handmade Brazilian swimwear company should have one. 🙂
What is the story behind Santa Lucia Swim?
What is the story behind Santa Lucia Swim?
When I met my wife and first moved to Brazil, I worked as an English teacher and watched my wife, who is a doctor, work with people on the edges of Brazilian society. I noticed that in her spare time she was helping the poorest of them sell handicrafts such as embroidered towels and sandals. She also brought them sewing machines to help them repair clothes and to make a little extra repairing and selling second-hand clothing.
I wondered if there was a way for them to make more commercial products and sell them overseas. There was only going to be a limited market for embroidered tea towels.
Looking for Inspiration
I travelled around Brazil looking at different handicrafts, searching for something different to export to other countries. I preferred fashion because out of Brazil I had over 20 years of experience in the fashion industry so if you can excuse the bad pun I thought it best to “stick to my knitting “. Ouch!
It is no secret that Brazil is beset by problems- most, sadly, self-inflicted. However, we want to concentrate on the positive things and that is what we here at Santa Lucia Swim aim to do – find unique Brazilian fashion products and share them with the world.
Looking for Inspiration
100% Hand Made 100% Authentic Brazilian
100% Hand Made 100% Authentic Brazilian
As I mentioned before my first contact was with hand embroidered tea towels however about from selling a few to your Auntie I thought the market was very limited. However, crochet has a long history in Brazil and Brazilian swimwear is one of its most famous exports. So combine the two and you have Santa Lucia Swim. Hand made is how they make their traditional designs.
Our designs are 100 % handmade in the countryside in Minas Gerais State, Brazil by our co- op workers. We believe in fair pay so we do not subcontract to other companies to the do our work for us. We are transparent with our workers.
Making Brazil a Fairer Society - One Bikini at a Time
We are not trying to kid ourselves here. Brazil has far too many problems but my grandmother told me “try to leave the world a little bit better of a better place than when you arrived.” So that is what we are trying to do. You can help by making a conscious choice when shopping – by spending money with a small company like ours who supports local communities by supporting local workers or by giving it to a faceless large international chain. 🙂
Thank you
-Santiago and the Team at Santa Lucia Swim-