On the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, Sanaya was born, an eco-friendly luxury swimwear brand. Young designer, Alexane Piré, draws inspiration from her Greek and Var ancestry to create modern collections to enhance women’s bodies. It’s all thanks to recycled, sustainable textiles designed in Europe. he meets.
After completing your Master 2 degree in Marketing, you decided to launch your own swimwear brand. Why ?
The desire to launch into self-entrepreneurship seduced me very quickly. It was essential for me to carry out a project that was close to my heart and in which I wanted to fully invest myself. Being a young woman 100% from the South and spending all my summers at the beach, I immediately thought of swimwear. Sanaya is a direct tribute to my paternal grandmother with whom I was so close and without which the brand does not exist! Yaya means “grandmother” in Greek and she accompanies me all the time. The little rose embroidered on the shirts pays homage to him, as it was his favorite flower.
So I teamed up with a stylist who would create Sanaya swimwear based on my wishes and tastes. This is how the first group was born in March 2020, just at the beginning of the first confinement! So it was imperative to find an effective response to store closures and that’s why I’m betting on strength social networks To develop my brand. And it worked instantly!
What makes Sanaya different from other swimwear brands?
It is an environmentally responsible brand. All parts are Lycra and nylon, which is made from recycled old fishing nets. This recycled fabric has incredible properties: it is highly resistant, anti-UV, dries quickly and gives swimwear real traction. The fiber that Sanaya uses is also Econyl approvedRecycled and recyclable.
Most of the swimwear is made in Mauritius and I also work with a factory located in Rhone-Alpes near Lyon, to promote as local and responsible production as possible.
How do you qualify your shirts?
They are resolutely feminine pieces, inspired by the fashion of the 60s and 70s, again a tribute to my grandmother. Some models are reminiscent of underwear, which is very thin and delicate, but never vulgar. Sanaya offers one-piece swimsuits, bikinis, etc. I hope my clients find themselves beautiful and comfortable in my swimwear. It also adapts to all body types and all ages.
today, Sanaya T-shirts are on sale online, but also in Printemps stores in the Southern region, and in stores in Saint-Tropez, Sainte-Maxime (in Var), Nice, Cannes, Marseille, Cassis, Saint-Bartheil and Dubai. I also want to develop sales in stores and internationally.
What is the big challenge you face today?
The main difficulty lies in dealing with the high costs of raw materials and transportation. Produce in small quantities to avoid waste, but the price of fabrics has gone up in the past year. The cost of manufacturing a swimsuit is on average 5 euros more expensive in 2023 than in 2020. It is therefore necessary to show pedagogy with customers, since it is necessary to count on average between 100 and 140 euros for a swimsuit.
I also want to work against fast fashion, which has a huge impact on the environment. This is why Sanaya only offers one collection each year, but all of the pieces are of high quality and last over time, justifying their prices.
