Making Waves

Maui swimwear designers are creating a global splash.

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Posh Pua

Posh Pua bikini

When she couldn’t keep her hand-sewn, itsy-bitsy bikinis in stock on her Etsy shop, Posh Pua, Julie Stone knew she had a business she could scale. Now her label is sold at stores across the West Coast and beyond. “Living here helped. People seem more comfortable ordering swimwear made by someone in Hawai‘i,” says the Kailua native.

Julie’s early fashion business was very much a cottage industry. She was a kid when her mom taught her how to sew; as an adult, Julie would hit thrift stores for interesting pieces that she’d creatively upcycle and add to her Etsy shop. Her lightning-in-a-bottle moment happened when she began designing for herself, starting with her swimwear line. When Posh Pua outgrew Etsy, Julie and her husband, photographer Ryan Siphers, found a manufacturer in Bali, which freed Julie to focus more on design, though she’s never given up hand sewing her samples, and cutting and grading her own patterns. As a lifelong surfer, she covets a properly fitting bikini.

Posh Pua designer

Julie has grown her label while raising three kids; though she carved her niche with teeny, triangle-top bikinis with very cheeky cuts, she’s now focusing on sportier styles better suited for surfing with her four-year-old daughter, and chasing her sons, seven and ten, around the beach. “It keeps it interesting,” she says. “The brand kind of follows your life.”

Julie still prefers a hands-on approach. She sews her own samples, runs her wholesale business personally, and is even known to style and photograph her own shoots. She recently opened her flagship retail store in Makawao: Holoholo Surf.

Who opens a bikini shop in an Upcountry cowboy town? A designer who treasures the old-fashioned way of interacting with her customers in person. Makawao’s laid-back pace complements Julie’s sweet, relaxed demeanor. With its vintage-aloha vibe, the shop focuses on what Julie calls “wearable surf culture.” She’s even gone back to land-based clothing, designing modern, sexier mu‘umu‘u and beach cover-ups. PoshPua.com

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1 COMMENT

  1. Hey Joe….Is Gary Greene confusing “Stunt Doubling” with photo doubling”? He’s a living testament to the old adage, “The older i get, the better i was.”

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