For fashion designers, making the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition isn’t just about being sexy while the magazine is on newsstands. There’s a loud ka-ching for years to come.
“Everybody opens up that issue and goes, ‘Wow, where can I get this suit?’ We have a great response when it hits the newsstands,” said Simon Southwood, a repeat who expects seven of his suits to grace the famous pages.
Southwood, in San Diego, Calif., has already presold to stores in anticipation of the big reveal Feb. 14 on David Letterman’s show, before going on sale the next day. The location of the famous shoots and who makes the cover are top secret until then.
“Consumers love to follow what’s hot, what’s glamorous, what’s beautiful,” Southwood said. “The first question that the sales rep will ask is, ‘What did you get into Sports Illustrated this year?'”
Southwood and his Sauvage Swimwear in San Diego, Calif., are known for cutout designs that average $200 each. He has made it into the blockbuster edition for more than a decade.
Designer Lisa Curran in New York has been in business for 12 years and in the issue every year except one. In the beginning, it really helped her business, providing her credibility as a designer.
“I think over time it translates into sales,” Curran said. “I also think it depends on the shot.”
Curran’s secret: she cuts bathing suits smaller just for Sports Illustrated. “Less is more for the issue. It doesn’t always translate into that for real life,” she said.
Her suits retail for $160 to $190. She tests them on real women, trying to design with fit in mind. “You will be surprised how many random people will e-mail me and say they saw your swimsuit in Sports Illustrated.”
Sisters Michele Letarte Ross and Lisa Letarte Cabrinha run their bicoastal company Letarte with Michele in Fairfield, Conn., and Lisa in Maui, Hawaii. In 2005, one of their suits that they’ve dubbed the candy red bikini was worn by Carolyn Murphy and selected for the cover.
That, the sisters said, is the Oscar of their industry.
“The cache [of]] being in Sports Illustrated is difficult to measure. It not only produces business, it elevated the brand to become a recognizable name in a very, very saturated industry,” Letarte Ross said.
“The one great thing about the issue is that it stays on newsstands for almost five months. It’s the type of magazine that no one ever throws out,” she said.
