Swimwear Brands to Know

Still probably the benchmark for grown-up swimwear, Orlebar Brown built its reputation on making swim shorts that looked more like tailored ones. With clean lines and strong colors, they're smart enough to wear straight from the beach to lunch without needing an emergency outfit change.

Commas has become one of the strongest names in modern resortwear because it understands that vacation clothes should feel relaxed without becoming sloppy. With lightweight fabrics, soft tailoring influences, and muted palettes, they're the sort of swim shorts that make you want to book somewhere with linen curtains and expensive olive oil. Simplicity has never felt so aspirational.

Patagonia remains one of the best options for people who actually want practicality involved thanks to durable fabrics, easy fits, and colors that work with everything. The brand's swimwear options are equally useful for swimming, hiking, and long walks — or sitting outside a café, pretending you might go swimming later. Which, realistically, is most vacations.

Casablanca approaches swimwear the same way it approaches everything else: with glossy, escapist, and sometimes slightly ridiculous designs, but in the best possible way. From saturated colors to retro sport references, this brand is not for minimalists. It's for those who believe vacations should feel cinematic, and for those who have absolutely no interest in subtlety.

Stone Island makes swim shorts for people who approach summer dressing the same way they approach outerwear: fabric-first, slightly obsessive, probably owns more jackets than necessary. Think clean branding, functional fabrics, and colors that always seem to work with sun-faded summer wardrobes.

Sometimes you just want the classic option — and with its prep references, easy fits, solid colors, and simple prints, Ralph Lauren still makes some of the best straightforward swim shorts around. They look good now, they looked good fifteen years ago, and they'll probably still look good in another fifteen.

Missoni brings texture and color into swimwear better than almost anyone else. With its famous zig-zags, knitted finishes, and rich tones, everything feels slightly more glamorous than necessary, which is exactly the appeal. It's the kind of swim shorts that assume you'll be near a very good hotel pool.

Sometimes, the obvious answer is the correct one. Nike's swimwear is uncomplicated, with good lengths, athletic cuts that don't feel overly sporty, and designs that will fit in with the rest of menswear's ongoing obsession with sportswear-adjacent dressing.

You’ve found the swim shorts. Now comes everything else.

Good holiday dressing is built around those extras. The loose linen shirt thrown on after swimming, the flip flops that say 'I’m relaxed' rather than 'I forgot shoes'. A good tote, better sunglasses, maybe a hat you’d feel slightly too self-conscious wearing at home.

The pieces that take swimwear from something you wear to the pool, to something you can spend the whole day in.