Aussie Designer Lisa Blue Shows Sexy, Exotic Swimsuits at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week: SWIM

Lisa Blue's runway show at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week SWIM in Miami began with a dramatic video of a woman swimming in blue water with a humpback whale, followed by a stream of gorgeous models in two distinct and original swimsuit styles-sexy Renaissance art, and exotic Aborigine.

The swimmer is designer Lisa Burke of Byron Bay, Australia, owner of Lisa Blue. The forty-year-old mother of two is happy to be able to combine her innovative fashions in swimwear with her passion for the whale cause; the label commits a whale-sized 25% of its profits to the Australian Whale Conservation Society, dedicated to cetacean conservation, education and research.

Her models were striking in Italian fabrics featuring Botticelli's Venus and other famous artworks, and beautiful in a completely different way in Aboriginal print bikinis, one- and two-pieces, and cutout suits. These carried out the natural feeling with wavy designs in blue, green and mauve, and abstract prints in beach and forest colors. They too were derived from paintings, those of Rosie Miller, from the Mirning whale tribe of South Australia.

What made them even more fabulous were the feathers and beads that adorned their headdresses and bracelets Paired with prints in colors of water, sand and sky, these adornments gave an exotic feeling of connection to the tropical earth and the sea.

Some of the Renaissance art swimsuits, with swaths of white and black stretch lace between artworks, were also paired with feathered headpieces-or with luscious tropical flowers in the hair and at the wrist.

Most of the models wore body paint-on their faces and ringing their arms and legs, adding to the aboriginal feel.

Lisa Blue's designs and her overall purpose are connected in a natural way; her swimsuits are riding the crest, so to speak, of the environmental wave.

Although Lisa Blue's designs are on view on her website, they are not as yet readily available in the United States. I found only two shops that carry them, Wet N Wild in Phoenix, Arizona ( 808-674-9283), and Wet N Wild in Kapolei, Hawaii (623-201-2000). Perhaps after her showing in Miami, they will be easier to find.

Current prices range from $159.95 to $174.95 (Australian dollars, AUD) for one-pieces, $69.95 to $74.95 AUD for bikini tops, and $59.95 to $64.95 AUD for pants. (The exchange rate at the time of this writing is .89 cents US to one Australian dollar.)

But even for those who can't find or can't afford the suits shown at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week SWIM, Lisa Blue's sensuous look of a woman living in nature can be created easily enough with a visit to the craft shop for beads, feathers, flowers and even body paint. A patterned swimsuit with or without a matching long skirt, a simple headband decorated with these flourishes and, for the really wild, painted circles on legs and arms--and you've got the look: Gorgeous. Sexy. Earthy. Lisa Blue.

www.lisablue.com.au

www.mbfashionweek.com/miami

www.northernstar.com.au/story/2010/05/13/byron-swimwear-label-starting-to-make-waves