From Coast to Coast
Bikinis are uniquely persistent, stubbornly resisting the clutches of time, lasting through shifting currents and changing tides. Even when they’ve been peeled off and hung up to dry, stashed away in designated dresser drawers, they linger as golden echoes on the skin, their silhouettes imprinted on bodies long after the sun has set.
There’s one suit in particular that’s seared into Paola de Oliveira’s memory like a stark tanline — a pink polka-dotted bikini she brought home from Brazil when she turned thirteen. She wore and rewore the suit for four summers in a row, over and over and over again. “I remember putting it on and admiring how the garment’s cut drew lines on my body,” Paola reminisces. “It made me feel beautiful.”
Paola grew up by the sea, her adolescence passing not so much in years as in changing swells and explosions of whitewash. She traversed coastlines, visiting family on Brazilian beaches and returning home to Southern California with her suitcase packed full of swimwear. Each suit was a “little treasure” infused with memories of her motherland: the dense tropical heat, the salty tang of the Atlantic, the swimmers and sunbathers splayed along the shore.
Now, nearly two decades since Paola first fell in love with her polka-dotted two-piece, the allure of the bikini proves itself everlasting. Her childhood passion for swimwear resurfaced during the past three winters she spent digging through European thrift stores. France and Italy — major hubs for the European beachwear industry from the 60s to the 90s — are especially rife with what Paola describes as “really special swim pieces.” Their quality is unmatched by anything that’s available on the contemporary market, and their rarity only enhances their appeal.
What started as Paola’s personal swimsuit collection has since evolved into the resale brand Elis Elis. The project originated mostly as a reaction against the destructive overconsumption that has come to define the modern clothing industry. Paola set out to close the fashion loop, extending the lifecycle of garments that would otherwise end up in landfills by putting them back into circulation. Instead of crafting a meticulous business plan, though, Paola embraces spontaneity, constantly reminding herself to “just do it, don’t overthink it.” This philosophy not only fuels Paola’s creative process but also embodies the very essence of sustainable fashion — prioritizing action and impact over perfection and pretense.
The Elis Elis Instagram page acts both as a bikini marketplace and art gallery. Between computer-scanned separates and camcorder footage of Paola dancing in her bedroom are Le Corbusier’s pencil drawings of seashells and flares of luminous color in Jerome Hill’s 1969 short film The Canaries. Art, Paola explains, has always been integral to her experience of the beach. She grew up on the Copacabana waterfront, flip-flopping over Burle Marx’s mosaic waves pressed into the stretch of pavement along the promenade and admiring the undulating facade of Niemeyer’s Edificio Ypiranga from the shore.
Art, too, has introduced Paola to the women from eras past who originally wore the swimsuits she sells. She admires the sun-drenched, bikini-clad beach babes immortalized in the archives of iconic photographers like Eliott Erwitt, Frank Rheinboldt, Claude Nori, and Blake Smith. What strikes Paola most about the photos is the confidence with which the women carry themselves. Elis Elis, she says, is meant to ignite the same sense of empowered freedom that makes these images and their subjects so captivating: the freedom of embracing the unique shape of one’s own body, of letting hair grow wild, of swimming in an unlined swimsuit that turns sheer when wet.
“I’m so inspired by this very egalitarian display of fashion,” Paola shares. She conjures up images of Rio de Janeiro, where everyone is on the beach. The shoreline attracts people of all ages, in all shapes and sizes, and from all walks of life. Together, in their swimwear, they luxuriate under the same sun, as blazing and beautiful as Paola felt when she wore her pink polka-dotted bikini all those summers ago.
