How Katherine Hampton created a sustainable swimwear brand

Katherine Hampton was tired of not being able to find well-fitting swimwear. So she made her own and took it one step further.

Growing up in New South Wales’ coastal town of Newcastle, Katherine Hampton, 31, has always loved the water. But what she didn’t like was how hard it was to find well-fitting and flattering swimwear.

So she decided to fix the problem with the help of her mum and in the process take on one of the biggest issues in fashion - sustainability.

Hampton founded her swimwear label Camp Cove in October 2013, with her designing the quirky patterns and her mum - who teaches fashion at TAFE – hand-making the first small batches of bikinis in recycled fabrics.

And once released, the demand was instant.

“The prints just sort of sold out immediately. We could only make very small quantities because my mum was actually doing all the production for the very first run,” she says.

“It was quite a stressful time, but we got it done.”

Speaking to news.com.au, Ms Hampton credited a perfect storm of factors that made starting a brand feel viable.

“Social media was starting to really pop off and it made starting a business something a single person could achieve whereas a few years before it was a little bit more daunting,” she says.

“Things like marketing a product without a big budget, or setting up a website without a lot of money meant I could do something on a small scale and grow from there.”

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Based in Sydney’s Inner West, Ms Hampton still designs her pieces and prints in-house. Picture: Instagram @katherine_dog.

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By releasing product in small batches, Ms Hampton was also able to test the success of select cuts and prints without committing to large overheads. After less than a year of operation, Ms Hampton had to outsource additional manufacturing services from a seamstress in Jervis Bay, where her products are still made to this day.

Ms Hampton said their original high-waisted bottoms and the Lena Twist Tops have continued to be the brand’s top sellers.

“The twist holds all this extra fabric so someone who’s an A-cup can wear it but we’ve also fitted some really big bust sizes too because that twist allows for a lot more coverage,” she says.

“When you’re selling things online you kind of want to be versatile and that kind of ties back into that sustainability element too.

“We want to be able to suit a really wide variety of people so we’re not making these really specific shapes that only fit a specific person and end up with garments that are wasted.”

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Camp Cove Swim’s twist top and high-waisted bikini styles are two of the brand’s best-selling styles. Picture: Instagram @campcoveswim.

Camp Cove Swim’s marketing has also helped the brand stand out from its competitors.

Early on, Ms Hampton says she made the choice to feature diverse women of different body shapes, and it was a decision that was embraced by her customers.

“We get a lot of positive feedback from emails and direct messages on Instagram from customers who say they’ve never seen themselves in images from a swimsuit brand and they’ve never been able to look at a photo and go: ‘That looks like me’,” says Ms Hampton.

“To be honest I think the Camp Cove community and the people that follow our page are here for that.”

Similarly, when the brand branched into fitness apparel when Covid-hit, they decided to call their range of crop tops and bike shorts ‘activity wear’ instead of active wear.

“This is stuff for you to move about in and it doesn’t matter what you’re doing when you’re wearing it, whether that’s yoga, exercising, practising your art or napping,” she says.

“I think people really liked that we took away that ‘fitspo’ pressure.”

An original pioneer of sustainable swimwear, Ms Hampton says the fashion industry’s gradual awareness of eco-friendly practices has increased the variety of recycled fabrics and materials available.

“There’s so much more recycled swim fabric available now. Even with things like recycled buckles or clasps, that wasn’t really an option in 2013,” she says.

“When we first started, we were probably one of the first brands putting our hands up and saying that was something that was important to us and that it was something we wanted as the driving force behind the brand.”

The industry’s response is a move she welcomes as well, adding that it puts a positive pressure on creators to come up with more and better products that consumers will want to cherish and use.

“Bigger businesses are realising that this is what most people want,” she says. “These products are going to get better and become more available.”

“After all, you don’t want to use (sustainable materials) just so you can say you’re using them. You really want to make sure it’s still a product that will last and that people are going to use over and over and over.”