Garner designer makes waves with hand painted, sustainable swimwear line
GARNER, N.C. (WTVD) -- Hand-painted prints and sustainable materials are what set Voglia Swimwear apart, according to founder and creator Ashley-Victoria Smith.
"Everything is hand-painted. The beauty of that is you can't go to any fabric store and buy my print and make your own stuff out of it," Smith said. "It is exclusively ours."
Smith launched Voglia Swimwear in 2020 and says the concept came to her in a dream three years earlier.
"After college, I started working in fashion-production companies, producing fashion shows-but I wanted to do something different, still in the industry," Smith said. "One night, it literally came to me in a dream, and that was in 2017."
Now, Voglia, which means "wish" in Italian, is gaining attention in the fashion world. The brand has been featured in publications like Cosmopolitan and British Vogue.
"Everything is done here in my little home studio," Smith said. "Then I send it off to Brazil, and it's all handmade and sent back to me for final packaging and shipping."
Those personal, handcrafted details have earned Voglia Swimwear recognition, including awards for Most Comfortable and Most Sustainable Swimwear by Lux Life magazine.
Smith is committed to eco-friendly practices and sustainability.
"My wish is for a cleaner, healthier, better world," she said. "That starts by cleaning up our oceans, our waterways, beaches, and saving marine life. And I figured it goes really well with swimwear."
Operating out of her home in Garner, Smith hopes to see Voglia Swimwear in local stores soon.
"Right now, we are direct-to-consumer online," she said. "We're doing more pop-ups. We have one right now at the Refinery Hotel in New York City, which is really exciting. I'm branching out into more in-person events, so fingers crossed."
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