How did you come up with the idea of Aqua Modesta swimwear?

B”H

The actual idea is from G-D, I explain. “Night after night, for several consecutive nights, I saw myself wearing one in the ocean. I saw the actual style and color to the finest detail. I am sure, it may sound unreal but it was very real in my dreams. I dismissed the dream. “I have no time for this, I thought. At the time, I was working as a freelance designer for a company creating curtains and bedding for home fashions. My children were still quite young. Upon, recounting my dream to my husband, he encouraged me to go ahead and make it. He said:” do not take such dreams lightly”.

Many years ago before my father passed on he said to me:” One day, you will create a design that will be very successful and be useful to many people”. I dismissed it at the time as I thought all fathers think so highly of their daughters. Never did I imagine that he had foreseen what I was beginning to embark upon.
As a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, I was always immersed in the field of design. I was growing in observance of mitzvot and could not imagine giving up swimming as I always loved the water so much! It was also due to the simple fact, that I needed one and there was none in the market. The modest market lacked a garment that could be worn in water, look modest yet fashionable. Above all the long cotton Tee-shirts they sold for swimming did not perform well in water. It was nothing short of a big sponge.
I proceeded to do some basic research at the Fashion Institute of Technology library as to what women wore in the days when modesty did matter. The research showed that women in the early 1900’s wore their cotton petticoats into the water. The men would ride the wagon all the way up to the shorefront. The women would undress down to their petticoats in the wagon. They then, exited the wagon and walked into the ocean and swam. Afterwards they would get back into the wagon soaking wet and go on home. Among the first swimsuits designed back in the day, wool was incorporated as fabric of choice. I could not believe what I was reading.
As the decades progressed and new fabrics came about, such as synthetic materials, woman’s suits began to get shorter and more revealing. I could not believe that with the advent of swimwear fabrics, modesty was disappearing from ladies swim wear fashions. I now knew I had a genuine mission to fill. To bring back modest swimwear fashion to women who really needed one. I now realized that modest swimwear can only work if it incorporates the correct fabrics with the correct cut and fashion. (To view some of the research, do visit our showroom in Brooklyn, NY).
Finally, I decided to go ahead and design one for myself. I purchased some swimwear fabric yardage, took it to a local pattern maker and showed her the sketch of what I wanted the design to look like based on the dream I had.
The very first time I wore it at the belle harbor beach in Queens NY, various women came up to me and asked, where I purchased it from. I then told them, I recently started designing and selling them. I gave them my phone number as I did not even have a business card, or a website or a production. Upon taking orders from them and from various local stores in the N.Y area, I then began to produce them at a local factory. The rest is history in the making.

As the saying goes “necessity is the mother of all invention”. With G-D as my partner, I knew I was bound for success!

http://aquamodesta.com/