Isa Boulder caught my eye when I saw Normani wearing the label’s negative space argyle knit separates—bra top, sleeves, bikini bottom, and socks—in her “Wild One” music video with Cardi B. The look is sexy yet crafty; experimental and alluring in equal measure. Normani’s not the only one who’s taken a shine to Isa Boulder, though. The swim and knitwear brand has won over the pop stars Dua Lipa and Lorde (per my Instagram feed) and most of Gen Z (per my TikTok feed). What makes it special is the way it seamlessly exists in an intersection between lingerie and ready-to-wear.
Designer Cecilia “Lia” Basari and her business partner Yuli Suri launched the brand as a swimwear line not long after Basari graduated from Central Saint Martins and returned to her native Indonesia in 2016. “We started with swimwear since it’s based on cut and sew and you don’t need to invest in new machines,” Basari says. “And, we wanted to create something that would also sell in Bali, and that’s swim.”
But we’re not talking basic bikinis. “I used to be so prejudiced against swimwear because I used to think it’s so simple to design, I thought it was just triangles,” Basari says, laughing. “But once I delved in, I realized, oh, you know, let’s push it.” In came the wire outlined and draped bra cups, ruched one-piece swimsuits, and hand woven bikini bottoms and tops, all made to sit somewhere between fashionable ready-to-wear piece and a true swim piece that isn’t “too heavy or impractical to be worn to the beach or by the pool.”
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