Peony
Swimwear is the category most boutiques treat as an afterthought, which is exactly why we went looking properly. Peony is an Australian label working out of Burleigh Heads, where prints start as hand sketches and the fabric is designed from the yarn up. Every piece is made from recycled content, linings included, and has been since 2019. The edit here covers the swim alongside the resort pieces cut from the same prints.
The Florentine print carries a good part of the range, a brown floral on cotton that appears as a midi dress and as a string bikini top and pant sold separately. Memoir is the embroidered cream group, running across a strapless one-piece, a bikini, a shirt and a short. There is Everlasting in the Isle colourway, a Summertime pant, the Memento long-sleeved mini dress, and a pointelle cardigan in seashell white for the evening the temperature drops.
Tops and bottoms are sized independently, which sounds obvious and which almost nothing else in the category actually does. Becky Morton started the label in 2012 after leaving criminal law, selling first at Queensland markets, and that mix-and-match thinking has been there from the beginning.
Peony is certified carbon neutral through Climate Active, the Australian government scheme.
The full edit hangs at Westbourne Arcade in Bournemouth, which is worth knowing if you have booked something warm at short notice.
