YOU DON'T NEED MORE SWIMWEAR, YOU NEED BETTER

You do not need more. You need better. An editorial manual for building a summer wardrobe that carries across seasons.

There is a drawer, in almost every home, full of old summers. Swimsuits bought in a rush the night before a trip, worn twice, kept out of guilt. The answer is not to buy more. It is to buy differently.

Bought once, worn always. The right question before a piece is not whether it suits this summer, but whether it suits the woman you will still be five summers from now. The pieces that stay in a wardrobe are not the most fashionable; they are the most faithful to who we are. A black swimsuit, a bikini in the right colour for your skin, a linen dress that works for morning coffee and for dinner. The rest is noise.

Quality is read in the hand before it is read in the mirror. Sofia Godinho swimwear is made in Portugal, much of the collection in recycled polyester, a yarn that holds its shape and its colour wash after wash, summer after summer. This is not a technical detail; it is what separates a piece that lasts from a piece that fades. A ribbed knit, like the one on the Amalfi bikini, is not only texture; it is resilience.

How to care for what stays. The rules are simple, and almost everyone ignores them. Always rinse in fresh water after the sea or the pool, because salt and chlorine are the true enemies of colour. Wash by hand, in cold water. Dry in the shade, never in direct sun or in the machine. Store it dry. A good swimsuit, treated this way, lasts far beyond the season it was bought in.

Five pieces, infinite presence. A clever summer wardrobe is not large; it is complete. A swimsuit that solves any day, like the Sorrento. A bikini you actually want to wear, like the Positano. A dress that bridges the beach and the table, like the Ischia. A necklace that looks right against wet skin, like the Fontelina. Gold earrings that go with everything, like the Alloro. That is it. That is all.

To buy better is, in the end, a form of respect. For the people who make the pieces, for the planet that receives them at the end, and above all for you, who deserve to open the drawer in July and find inside exactly what you love.Sofia Godinho