Swim and Co. - The Gentle Swimsuit

Evocative Bathing Shorts

I took a weekend break to Staffordshire last week to visit Trentham Gardens, restored Italianate gardens originally designed by Capability Brown, but relaid in their current arrangement by Charles Barry. A splendid place. I hope plans to restore Trentham Hall on the grounds come to fruition. And such an excellent garden centre on site — it's simply enormous. You would want for nothing for your garden. I was particularly impressed by the hedging plants. I love hedges. Brown & Green food shop on site stocks some wonderful local produce too.

First into the Gizzi Weekender Bag — still going strong — went these top-hole bathing shorts from our Spanish friends at Swim and Co. Never be without a pair of bathers when you're travelling.

My Spanish friends put me on to these shorts, having spotted them in Anglomania, Madrid. The bods in the Salamanca district swear by them when they head to the coast.

Swim and Co. creates a limited edition of fifty of each design of their bathing shorts. They aim to evoke the classic bathing shorts seen in the summer colonies of twentieth-century 'Portofino, Deauville, Lake Como, Biarritz [and] East Hampton' — in the 'golden years of Hollywood and the dolce vita'.

My Cypress Paisley shorts come in a very fetching green paisley print, which will combine very nicely with tanned limb, beach sand, mojito and so on.  They are a very soft and comfortable swimming short, with a colour that rather brightens up my wan from winter pelt. I couldn't quite capture the vibrancy of the green in my photos — though it's a very jolly green, let me assure you. Most like the professional photo at the top.

Made in Spain, the shorts are constructed using Giza cotton thread. We all know about the benefits of Giza cotton. The shorts also come in a rather splendid tube packaging — package fans.

Having passed the weekend with flying colours, these swimming shorts are certainly in the starting line up for the summer break later in the year.

Roll on the summer bathing.