GRAPHIC TEES, MEET YOUR MATCH: THE SUIT MAKING A STATEMENT

The sassy spirit of Y2K fashion has been all the rage from streetwear to swimwear. Within the latter, we’ve seen turn-of-the-century styles translate to superfluous adaptations of the low-rise sarong, the tropical&cheetah motif, and the board short from swimwear retailers high and low. Yet this same era of early 2000’s spunk birthed the niche trend of the midriff bearing graphic t-shirt, or baby tee. Often embellished with provocative, fierce, and at times overbearing aphorisms and slogans, the spirit of the graphic baby tee returns to shores in late summer of 2022, this time reborn as a skimpy and conversational swim suit. Surfing in the wake of Britney Spears’ iconic Dump Him baby tee, Anne Hathaway's witty Fed Up ringer, and Naomi Campbell’s infamous “Naomi Hit Me and I Loved it” comes the summer’s most outspoken slogan suit: The Holy Trinity Bikini.

Bearing “Father” and “Son” on sly sections of a triangle top and “Holy Spirit” on a cheeky tie bottom, what the internet has dubbed The Holy Trinity suit released earlier this year from Praying, a brand founded in 2020 known for its “cath-trad” take on streetwear popular among New York City subdistricts and London’s youth culture. Listed at $100 to Praying’s site, the bikini grew a semi-cult following specific to fans of campy countercultural styles. Yet earlier this month, TikTok star Addison Rae donned the classic black-on white lettering edition of the bikini in a campaign image for the Adidas x Praying collab sneaker — Supernova Cushion 7— to much internet controversy. As the image of Rae went viral for its bold and subversive phrasing, the backlash from denominational religious groups pressured her to delete the image from her profile without statements from either brand.

Are graphic bikinis pushing the boundaries?

Such a binaried reaction to a barely-there bikini raises the argument of fashion’s inherent function. Do our bodies say enough on their own? Is the vulnerability of wearing a swim suit such that we should censor our language? Let the garments speak for themselves?

Despite such challenges, the Holy Trinity suit refuses to be silenced, now available as a featured piece on the high fashion luxury retailer site SSENSE. After the viral success of the original colorway, more styles of the provocative bikini set dropped; now available in either nylon, terry cloth, or even bedazzled lettering. The suit has breached even the barriers of language, as the French version of the controversial set can be seen on Christina Aguilera from her July 27th Instagram post.  

Perhaps due to the proliferation of religious iconography in the high fashion industry, such as the 2018 Met Gala (which bore the theme Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination), the Holy Trinity Bikini has been a hail mary for Instagram influencers and luxury wear icons alike. Faith and fashion find overlap in ceremonial garments— be it the pastor’s robes, rabbi’s yarmulke, or an imam’s turban— and references to these belief systems have bled into pop culture, media, and streetwear. Among Praying’s Catholic-bent aesthetic are contemporaries Marc Jacob’s Heaven, streetwear brand Fear of God, or even Tyler the Creator’s Jesus Freak capsule for Golf Le Fleur.

Agnostic nihilism, therefore, is nothing new to a god-fearing industry. What marks a new season for swimwear is the success of a swim suit with a message. Graphic swimwear presents the opportunity for the wearer to preach their beliefs, whatever they may be. Independent artists like Cowboys of Habit have followed suit with equally provocative bikinis that speak for themselves; a denim lycra look features “In My Villain Era” across the waistline is available on ap0cene.com.

Written by Lily Moskowitz