“While vacationing in St. Barth’s in 2005, Haverhill Leach found her calling when she noticed a significant void in the contemporary swimwear market: “I wanted to make a swimwear collection that is as beautiful and sophisticated as a woman’s favorite garment.” Haverhill swimwear is constructed of only the highest quality Italian fabrics in rich, trendsetting palettes and original prints. Haverhill is inspired by antique textiles of exotic locales like Asia and Africa, infused with the vintage and unabashedly feminine designs of the 40’s and 50’s. She prefers the idea of tailoring the suits and manipulating the fabric with pin tuck detailing, raw edged ruffles or twists as opposed to using modern day embellishments or hardware. With these inspirations combined with her technical knowledge, artistic flair, and a concern for what makes women feel pretty, the finished product is a designer swimwear collection that is comfortable, luxurious, artful, and most importantly, flattering. Haverhill plans to expand the line into a lifestyle brand – including apparel, house wares, and a children’s line in the near future.” Having worked for Kate Spade in the past, I’m sure she’ll succeed!

Photos of the beautiful 2008 collection:

Academy of Art University has one of the top fashion schools in the nation with the most famous show in the industry.

Anika bikinis have been featured in InStyle, Elle and Women’s Wear Daily — helping the brand to quickly grow a reputation… I looked up the Anika Brazil website but it doesn’t look too well up to date… Yet, there’s quite a lot of online shops selling the 2008 collection, so loads of pics are to be found…

As always, I picked my favorites!

Pure class, and obviously we’ve got some beautiful photos, thanks to Asha Couture!

Back to the pretty swimwear. My absolute favorite is the Letarte Seahorse plunge one-piece swimsuit. It’s very sexy, yet covers up the stomach completely. Perfect for me!

When discussing the swimwear trends for 2008, I predicted pieces like this ring detail one-piece, with the metal center eye-catcher. I like it. Verry classy!

More Letarte right here on Figleaves.com!

Kushcush swimwear is both fun and sexy, with interesting use of color and trim. I surprised myself by liking some of the colors and prints I normally avoid, but the right design made me fall in love with them.

These are some of my favorites, but be sure to look at the web site for the full line. Kushcush (I love that name!) is definitely worth a few minutes of your time, and much of their collection is currently on sale.

My favorites at BeCheeky.com: a sober white triangle, a pastel stripe bikini, a floral leaf print bikini, and a mosaic bikini.

If you want to see how the swimsuit would look on you, go to My Virtual Model and then choose the Lands’ End swimsuit you want to try on.

You can find Eres stores in France, Spain, United States and Japan. Also, if you like to shop online, some Eres swimsuits can be found at Browns.

Enjoy the video — more to come in the next few days, I promise!

Click here to view the embedded video.