Growing up a fair skinned kid in Australia you learn a healthy respect for the sun and you learn to fear the burn. A few hours of negligence where you forget to reapply your sunscreen at the right time and stay in the shade and before you know it you can be cooked red as lobster, shaking with shock and huddling under an icy cold shower.

There were not a lot of options growing up that I remember, so right through my teens whilst my friends were in their lovely little bikinis there I would be in my t-shirt, shorts and the biggest hat I could hide under.

As an adult I rejected that daggy teenage solution to my sun problem and just stopped going to the beach and enjoying the outdoors. Yes there were rashies and stinger suits available sometimes but being curvaceous and plus size, surf shops were an intimidating place to shop to start with, and then finding there was nothing above a youth size 12-14 was mortifying and left me with zero options. Manufacturers of swimwear just expected that of course we were happy to have no coverage or support in our swimwear because that was the ideal everyone wanted right? In the 90s and 00s we were expected just to change our bodies if the swimwear style didn’t fit or suit.

Inevitably I ended up in the men’s section where the board shorts were longer and I could just about fit into the largest ones they had. I could get the length coverage I needed this way, but the waist would gape, and any movement would normally bust open the velcro fly.

It wasn’t until I was in my early thirties that I was in Aldi one day and they had some sewing machines. It set off a little sparkle of inspiration in me and I purchased my first basic machine for $99 and took her home. I unpacked it and started watching the Instructional DVD. I would like to say I got it straight away, but I absolutely did not. After 45 minutes I sat in confusion and packed the machine away as a silly fantasy, how could I possibly learn to do that?

It was about a year later with my machine gathering dust that I saw on Facebook a lovely lady advertising sewing classes for absolute beginners and I excitedly enrolled. Caz from Usefulbox was a delightful wealth of knowledge. Our first lesson she completely demystified the machine and we made a bag, and a zip pouch, and at the second lesson we made an A-line skirt. And just like that I was hooked.

Dial forward a few years and I was confidently making simple dresses, cushions, toys and bags, but was still at just as much of a loss with the options I could buy to wear to the pool and the beach.

One week as I was packing for a family holiday to the beach in Tasmania I had an absolute light bulb moment. What if I could make something like a bike short? But in swim fabric? AND line it? I dug through my fabric stash and pulled out some hamburger swim fabric that was on clearance and got to work. The process took a bit of experimenting to get the best result of how to drop in the lining, but finally I had it.

With absolute excitement I tried them on and they worked. But they not only worked they were amazing. The addition of the lining meant I could wear them comfortably by themselves and with no raw seams scratching my lady bits. They stayed just where I needed them to high on my waist, they didn’t ride up, and they were incredibly comfortable, so I made another pair in some cactus swim fabric too.

When we made it down to Tassie to the beach at last it was like a light came back on for me. I was happy sitting in the sand playing with my kids. I was happy splashing in the waves and being in the family photos. The terrible chafing I would often get between my thick thighs all my adulthood wasn’t an issue and I could just get on with enjoying my day, and making those magical memories with my family, and enjoying the beaches again at last.

I still have these first two pairs that started it all, they lasted me for years of pool swimming , beach days, splash parks and riding jet skis and more and are still going strong even now.

 I scratched my head why these had never been available to buy anywhere, because surely if they were that life-changing for me there would be other women out there that could use them too? I googled endlessly for ‘swim shorts’, ‘pool shorts’, ‘stretchy long swim board shorts’ and the only result I ever came up with was maybe a pair of plain black ones in straight sizing designed for performance swimming.

So in early 2020 I took the plunge that I had been thinking about for years and started officially on my journey to making Mantis Swimwear. I took a leap of faith that there just had to be other curvy women out there of all shapes and sizes that had been crying out for something like this too, but weren’t equipped to sew their own. And if no one else was going to offer more choices for women in swimwear then it was going to have to me. And that’s how this whole amazing journey of Mantis Swimwear started.