summer suits.

June 28, 2021

This post is sponsored by Misha & Puff. Their swimwear collection launches on Tuesday, June 29th, at 11 AM EDT.

In the summertime my kids tend to be up with the birds and down with the sun. The hours that pass in between the waking up and the going back to sleep are long and sweaty and full of adventuring outside, even if we stick relatively close to home. Every single day there are swim suits. For chance happenings upon an open fire hydrant or splash pad, for trips to the beach or public pool, for emergency co-opting of the park water fountains to serve as make-shift sprinklers. It’s never a bad idea to leave the apartment with swimsuits in tow; better still to wear them all day long.

Misha & Puff’s new children’s swim collection launches tomorrow and we had the chance to give it an early summer test drive around Brooklyn. In the past week we’ve brought suits with us for a morning trip to Coney Island, biked them through the neighborhood, run them through a late-afternoon sprinkler, and dribbled watermelon onto them before dinner. In the evenings as the sun’s crept below the buildings and the kids fall asleep in their slightly sandy beds, we’ve given the suits a gentle wash by hand and left them to dry overnight on the line.

When approaching this new collection—the first relaunch of Misha & Puff swimwear collection in several years—the company knew they wanted to ensure that the fabric they used met the highest standards of sustainable production. Instead of suits made from crude-oil dependent virgin nylon, every piece in the Misha & Puff swim collection is made from ECONYL®, a silky regenerated textile made using 100% recycled, 50% post-consumer nylon.

The post-consumer recycled materials are gleaned from fishing nets, fabric scraps, and industrial plastic collected from oceans and landfills. ECONYL® can be recycled, regenerated, and reimagined into new products repeatedly without using up new resources or depleting the quality of the material, which means less reliance on fossil fuels and significantly reduced CO2 emissions.

Maybe most importantly for the kids wearing the stuff, the fabric is comfy, soft on the skin, and breathable. It has sun protection enough (UPF 50+) that they can take a break from the endless reapplication of sunscreen.

There are three pieces in this year’s swim collection—a rash guard, tie top, and swim trunks and my kids have been cycling through them depending on moods and weather.

When given the chance to choose samples, Faye and Silas both chose to wear Coral from head to toe, but each piece is available in four colors—Coral, Clay, Sage, and Midnight—that can be mixed and matched into color blocked suits.

In case it’s helpful to give you a sense of fit and how these suits can be made to last over the course of a few summers, Faye (typically a small size 6) is wearing tops and bottoms in size 6 and Silas (typically a size 4) is wearing tops and bottoms in size 2. (Calder has size 4 Sage swim trunks pulled over her cloth diaper and cover, but could easily have sized down!)

The size 6 on Faye is roomy enough to allow for another summer or two of wear and the size 2 on Silas is snug, but still plenty comfy on his four-year-old frame.

Hand washing the suits and hanging them to dry out of direct sunlight will help ensure they hold up summer after summer. No doubt, when the kids outgrow their suits, they’ll have lucky siblings and cousins to keep them in rotation.

This post is sponsored by Misha & Puff. Their new swim collection is currently available to preview and will launch on Tuesday, June 29 at 11 AM EDT. Thanks for supporting the brands that support Reading My Tea Leaves.

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11 Comments

  • Reply Caroline June 28, 2021 at 12:41 pm

    These look great. My younger son has a not a fan of traditional trunks, he much prefers the snug style.

    1
    • Reply ERIN BOYLE June 28, 2021 at 12:48 pm

      Yes! These pass the test for sure!

      0
  • Reply Rebecca June 28, 2021 at 12:59 pm

    How do they get recycled when they’ve reached the end of their wearable lifetime?

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    • Reply ERIN BOYLE June 28, 2021 at 1:14 pm

      this is the forever question with fabrics isn’t it? there are companies (like aquafil that makes econyl) collecting these pre-consumer fabrics for recycling, and other orgs like FabScrap also come to mind, but it’s harder to find folks who will take the worn items from individual consumers. as far as i’ve been able to tell, aquafil, the company that manufactures econyl, doesn’t yet have their own consumer-facing reclamation program, but i’ll keep you posted if i learn more.

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      • Reply rebecca June 29, 2021 at 12:22 pm

        Thanks! I’m a big fan of mending things over and over, and making things last as long as possible- and in general buy as many things used as possible. Sometimes things are just….done, and then what? Love your blog and your attention to these sorts of questions.

        1
        • Reply ERIN BOYLE June 29, 2021 at 4:42 pm

          Yes: I find bathing suits to be so tricky because once the material itself starts degrading, fixing it really feels beyond my skill set. (And of course we all know where that degrading plastic fabric ends up!)

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  • Reply Hannah June 28, 2021 at 1:52 pm

    completely unrelated to this post, but it makes me so happy to see those chairs out on your adjoining rooftop! love that y’all are getting to use that space. do you just crawl out the window to bask out there? no shame, I would do the same!

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    • Reply ERIN BOYLE June 28, 2021 at 2:20 pm

      yes. shhhh.

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  • Reply K June 28, 2021 at 7:18 pm

    Playing in those fountains looks like so much fun! Awesome-looking suits.

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    • Reply ERIN BOYLE June 28, 2021 at 7:37 pm

      such a blast! they got the secret how-to from a neighbor about how to adjust it, too!

      0
  • Reply Lauren June 28, 2021 at 7:48 pm

    The photo of your daughter holding the watermelon is just everything. What a beauty!

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