2020/21 will go down as a hell of a year or two, but there have been some upsides. One we have noted and applauded is the huge number of people around our beautiful Irish shores taking up the icy cold sea plunge.
The daily Irish swim, be it in the sea, the river or the lake, a bracing, invigorating and hysterical fits of whoops and shrieks inducing shocker of a way to put a rhythm on things, a marker of self-care, a cure to help with the blue fog of groundhog-ness, a way to stay in contact with fellow brave souls and a way to feel renewed, alive and well. Though not daily swimmers we have to admit, we too have braved the sea elements regularly over this covid year and enjoyed every minute of these crazy life affirming dips! In conversations with friends and watching the movement grow on social feeds, we have seen a wonderful ritual develop in the daily dip. The time, the undressing, the plunge, the post drying, the euphoria, the encouragement, the warmer upper coffee and tea, the social distance chats.
As a nod to this time and a celebration of the ritual we designed The STABLE Swim Collection. We wanted to add to the ritual and create accessories that would feel great, look great and be fit for purpose. We developed a new Irish Linen fabric that does all that we hoped for. Working with our old friends brothers Stephen and Seamus at Emblem Weavers we created a heavy weight textured fabric. To develop our own colour-way, we selected a deep indigo blue and pure white linen yarns and wove them to introduce the white flecks to the front. This allows for a really lovely reverse and front option for wear. The fabric is pre-shrunk, tumble washed and tumble dried which allows for all the properties needed; wonderful absorbency, naturally anti-microbial, soft on the skin yet gives a good exfoliation feel, light to carry, and fast drying. From this fabric we have created a collection of ready-to-use multifunctional swim accessories. The hero being the Swim Towel, a waterproof Swim Bag, a Swim Holdall Tote and a Swim Turban to wrap wet hair away.
We're very excited to introduce this collection and look forward to each piece becoming a part of a very special ritual whether it be for the daily swimmers or the once a year swimmers, the river swimmers and the lake swimmers, the Irish Sea swimmers or the Atlantic Ocean swimmers – even the overseas swimmers!
