Meet the cool new swimwear brand transporting you to Ibiza
It’s fair to say businesswoman Aliya Wilkinson has had a busy few years. Having only founded her swimwear label Ôsalé back in 2022, the CEO has spent the last 24 months building her brand – launching a website, rolling out marketing plans and expanding her core collection of playfully printed bikinis, one-pieces and resort wear. Single-handedly, we hasten to add.
Having grown up in Ibiza, for Aliya her swimwear brand is all about escapism and inspiring that holiday feeling year-round. “I basically saw having a swim label as a dreamy way of getting back to the sea,” the 36-year-old entrepreneur says.
It’s unsurprising that the founder wanted to celebrate the happy holiday atmosphere of her childhood. Everything down to the brand’s name (Ôsalé: a play on the French words for salty water inspired by Aliya's bilingual education) reflects her memories of the Mediterranean. She was taken over to Ibiza as a baby by her free-spirited mother and father who had been visiting the island since the late ‘50s and ‘60s.
This season, Ôsalé is celebrating all things boho with a nod to artisanal finishes, softer colours and earthy tones – think ivory, sand, khakis and browns. “Exotic animal prints never go out of season in swimwear,” says Aliya. “The classic leopard print comes back time and time again, but I’m also loving snake print as it's smaller and easier to wear.”
For Aliya, her design process is a fun way of unleashing her inner Ibiza child. But while her boho designs most definitely exude this carefree feeling, the most important factor for the founder is how the pieces feel on the body.
“I choose the best fabrics I can, and it is all about the design,” she says. “It is so important that my pieces are wearable, simple and just fit nicely. The whole idea is that an Ôsalé piece is your go-to swimsuit that reflects your personality on holiday.”
Despite being inspired by resortwear and the party styles of Ibiza, Aliya still wanted silhouettes that could be adapted for everyday wear, as she was sick of seeing crazy cut-outs dominating the holiday collections of other swimwear brands.
“Holidays are all about going with the flow and not feeling like you have to run up and get changed before you move to the next thing,” Aliya says. Her top holiday styling tips? “I love a versatile halter neck beach dress thrown over my bikini – something in a floaty lightweight fabric. I’ll always throw one of my mum’s vintage raffia belts and some big bangles into my beach bag to dress it up at the end of the day. I tend to wear fine gladiator wrap sandals – they always look elegant.”
Ôsalé focuses on functional, beautifully cut pieces designed with the modern woman in mind. There’s under-wiring for support, clever ruching at the waist and backside to flatter, plus an array of styles to suit every body shape – think high-waisted, high-leg briefs that showcase skin in a different way and matching customisable cover-ups to take you from poolside to bar.
Aliya believes that luxury, quality and longevity are the keys to a more sustainable approach to swimwear. “I am in quite an early stage of the business, but I don’t like the idea of becoming a giant brand that is constantly bombarding people with new collections every year,” she says.
Right now, the label is producing 50 pieces of each item with the goal of growing and offering more styles while retaining a unique approach to drops. "I want to make the customer feel like what they bought last year is still relevant, so I am not hot on doing big launches," Aliya continues. "Ôsalé is all about taking things slower.”
“Ôsalé stands for timeless appeal. We produce pieces that endure, both in style and substance.” Aliya’s designs always “stick to simple silhouettes, highlighted by that special little something, be it luxe hardware, a delicate trim or a special textured fabric.”
Working on a smaller scale is somewhat of a shock to the system for Aliya, after a previous career designing for leading European swimwear brand Banana Moon. Her past designs have been worn by an impressive list of celebrities, from Ashley Graham to Millie Mackintosh and even Kate and Pippa Middleton. “It was an invaluable experience, but I wanted a slower pace of designing,” she explains.
In fact, it was Aliya's roles working at smaller boutiques that inspired her to start an independent brand. “I had the most fun working for those companies because you have to pitch in and you’re not just restricted to your job,” she explains. “You end up doing so many elements of it – from the wholesale side to the shop floor, to fitting a customer – compared to bigger places where you’re just slotted into your designer role, then it gets handed over to production and you don’t quite know what happens after.”
Witnessing the full cycle of a garment is something Aliya is accustomed to now. As a one-woman team she has self-funded her venture so far but trusted in small workshops outside Venice, Italy to produce Ôsalé pieces. “Near the factory there are lots of other artisanal workshops and I am dreaming of eventually doing hand crochet details at one of them. I think you have to keep these traditional skill sets alive,” she says.
And while Aliya would also like to bring an element of production back to the UK to cut the brand’s carbon footprint, she is focusing on being more sustainable in other ways. “It is not just about sustainable fabrics,” she explains. “It is about using high quality materials. Because if I can’t necessarily find the right recycled fabric, I don’t think it matters, if the product I am making is made to last. In the grand scheme of things that is what is important: that the person can keep coming back and wearing your swimsuit for years.”
Despite still being in its infancy, Aliya has set the precedent of giving back to charities close to her heart. For the founder that meant going back to her roots in Ibiza. At the moment, Ôsalé donates one pound to the Ibiza Prevention for every item sold. This non-profit organisation focuses on different projects to protect the island’s environment, reduce plastic waste and defend the native and iconic Formentera lizard. “Eventually I would love to give more or host charity events for them to raise awareness and earn more money for them,” she adds.
And while Ôsalé still has deep ties to Ibiza (the campaign imagery is always shot there and Aliya visits throughout the year), other islands are also keen to get a slice of the new swimwear brand. “Our first two buyers were in the Bahamas and Florida, and I was like, ‘Of course they are’,” she says. “I think people in hot sunny places just get the colours and the vibe of the brand perfectly. So, it was natural for buyers in those places to be drawn to it.”
In the UK, you can find Ôsalé in boutiques in Cheshire and London if you’re looking to shop in person. “It is definitely one of those products you need to see in real life to see all the details and touch it,” she adds.
Aliya is refreshingly honest about her journey as an entrepreneur. She happily talks about bumps in the road and tropical storms wreaking havoc at photoshoots, as well as the simple joy she gets from packaging up one of her products. After speaking to her for way over our allocated time, her thoughtful answers reflect wisdom well beyond her years.
“It has taken me a long time to finally pluck up the courage to do this,” she says. “I know people go in gung-ho and it works out for them, but for me I needed the knowledge to have the confidence that I had learnt as much as I could.” Her advice to other budding entrepreneurs is refreshingly simple: get your experience, listen and cherry-pick who you want to work with.
Despite a successful year the founder remains humble. “Business definitely didn’t come naturally to me,” she explains. “But I love the little universe I have created around it, from the branding to the finished product. I can see on the horizon what it can be so all I have to do now is keep focused and watch it grow – and maybe get a bit more of a team around me to help me on the way.” Sounds like a pretty good plan to us.
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