"Swimming is the new yoga," I pronounce on our way back from the pool. My friend Hilary, who barely survived my yoga phase a few years back, looks shocked.
"If swimming's the new yoga, I'd better run for the hills," she says.
Our yoga phase disproved the theory that everybody is capable of it. This body isn't, as was demonstrated when I crashed out of a simple position, missed my mat, hit her and – sin of sins – swore. I wasn't asked back.
Swimming and I, are, however, getting along very well. And what intrigues the fashion part of me is what I see as I walk through the changing room on my way to the pool. Each time I do it, I'm struck by the thought that swimsuits for actually swimming in is a market with potential.
Before you say "yeah, too niche", let's look back at yoga. For years (several thousand), it was something practised by sinewy blokes in loincloths. Eventually they were joined by flower people in T-shirts that doubled as pyjamas.
Then suddenly, there was Christy Turlington doing Dhanurasana in a bias-cut satin evening gown on the cover of US Vogue. Once yoga and fashion collided, it was just a hop, skip and a jump – or a Nakrasana, Bakasana and Utkatasana – to billion-dollar bendy brand Lululemon.
Swimwear not for the elite
I need to clarify what I'm not talking about, which is beach wear, a market exceedingly well-covered – well actually, exceedingly not, when you think of bikinis. I'm not talking about swimwear as created by those queens of Bondi, the Zimmermann sisters, nor that conceived across the world at Ipanema, either.
When it comes to swimwear for the already fabulous to look even more gorgeous in, a quick shout-out also to the Chanel-owned Eres, for which a wearer must be stunning enough to carry off mustard, or that weird tone of puce that used to be known as Queen Mum Mauve.
No, what I'm talking about is active swimwear – not for elite competitors but for the rest of us to wear confidently on that scary walk from changing room to pool. I can already see that the stakes are rising.
Since I've learned to swim, Speedo, purveyor of swimwear for champions, has – usefully for me – created a new line called Sculpture, which does a nice job with the cut and colour blocking I need.
There are a handful of upstarts paddling in Speedo's wake, too. Think KinaMara out of South London or Cardo Paris from France.
Where things get really exciting is in performance pieces designed to move in and out of the pool. Although my idea of hell is a duathlon, fantastic things are happening in the territory where earth and water meet.
What's even more exciting is that two of the feisty challenger brands with a real chance of global success are Australian. We Are Handsome's roaring big cat motifs are starting to crop up a long way from Sydney, while P.E. Nation combines slam-dunk graphics with a deep grasp of style. Could one of these become the Lululemon of the new niche?
The starting gun has been fired. Let's enjoy the race.
International fashion editor Marion Hume is based in London.
