For friends Lauren Green and Tanayah Smith, the possibility of starting a business together began with a phone call from the other side of the world. “[Loz] rang me when she was in South America and said, ‘We need to do something’,” Tanayah, affectionately known as Tee, says.
“I’ll never forget that phone call either,” Lauren adds. “I’d been gone for six months and I just rang her out of the blue and thought, ‘Tee would be so keen to do this’. Because we’ve always been the two in the group who didn’t do Uni and who just kind of hung out. This worked for both of us.”
What ‘this’ was, was the merging of two creative minds and friends to create a swimwear business, Heyy Dream Swim. With Lauren’s artistic talents and Tanayah’s background in fashion, it was a perfect fit.
“It was perfect because I would have the designs ready to go and I love doing that, but Tee knows and came up with the shape and I’m not good at that,” Lauren says.
“It worked really well,” Tanayah adds.
With eight designs worked out from Lauren’s travels overseas, Tanayah set to work on creating a pattern that was based on comfort, fashion and complimenting a range of body types.
“It’s more of a vintage cut, so we didn’t want to make the back cut too low so the shoulders would fall off. We also wanted to make it an active wear or lifestyle piece so you can wear it with a top or shorts. And it has an inbuilt sports bra into it,” Tanayah says.
“We don’t want to be targeting the tall skinny models, we want anyone and everyone to be able to wear it and love it.”
After months of trial and error, in which their friends played dress-ups to check the cuts of the swimsuits (“Those poor girls,” the duo confess), the brand was launched in October 2016.
Now several months into the business, and with the likes of Sally Mustang and actress Pia Miller sporting their wares on Instagram, the duo are setting their sites on Bondi with a launch scheduled there this week.
And while the brand may be taking the big step in spreading beyond the Geelong audience directly, they still credit seeing their friends wearing the swimsuits as their favourite thing. They also make an emphasis of supporting fellow creatives, as this upcoming launch will see them work with Jordie Luke from Lunar Concept Store after previously working with Courtney Ward and Annie Wilson of Bohome Homewares.
Part of working with Lunar comes with the emphasis that the swimsuits can also be worn as daywear – something Instagram is testament to. And with versatility in the one-piece swimsuit, there are plans to introduce a two-piece and a range of new designs.
“We’ve already got stuff ready to go for next year, and designs we want to change up,” Lauren says.
Currently working in hospitality – Lauren at Geelong West Social Club and Tanayah at Scout & Co – their biggest wish is for this to become their 9-to-5. And with many past job roles between them, this may be the one that sticks.
“It’s actually funny when you think of what we’ve done and what we’ve learnt compared to others who may have had just one job,” Tanayah says, before Lauren adds with a laugh, “We want it to take off. We want to stop making coffee.”
Website: www.heyydreamswim.com
Instagram: @heyydreamswim
Written by Amanda Sherring
Images by Earl Weir
