The brand · Gallarate, since 2004

Born in the lane. Made in Italy.

BONESWIMMER started in Gallarate in 2004 with one idea from Debora «Deda» Silvestro: take fashion somewhere it had never been, into the lanes of a swimming pool. Since then we have designed training swimsuits in our atelier and checked every one there. You can spot them from the other end of the pool.

Around 2000

The pool came in three colours

Blue, red and black. Deda grew up in the water and kept asking why fashion had never made it into the lane.

139Prints in the catalogue today, in order of colour

Today our atelier turns out 70 to 80 original prints every season. Below are the ones in the catalogue right now, sorted by colour: each square takes you to its swimsuit.

Logo Military + Giallo Fluo

Logo Military + Light pink

Lilla Stelle Rosso Fluo

Fucsia stella azzurra

Deda Silvestro in the Gallarate shop, 2018

The founder

Water as discipline

Debora «Deda» Silvestro has been swimming since she was six: in a club squad until eighteen, then as an instructor and a Masters swimmer. Her other root is the Lombardy textile trade. At eighteen she joined the family textile company and stayed fifteen years, learning everything it takes to grow a business.

In 2003, at around thirty, she decided to bring the two together. In 2004 BONESWIMMER was born: colour and prints for people who actually train.

“I was the first in the swimming market to bring in a bit of fashion.”

Deda Silvestro to Il Giorno

The mark

A skull in swim goggles

At first people just called them «the colourful swimsuits»: there was no name yet. Then came the mark. The skull has nothing to do with bikers. It is an old symbol, the pirates' one, so much so that kids still ask for «the pirate swimsuit». Deda gave it a pair of swim goggles.

The name came later: the swimmer's bone. Not a provocation. A signature.

“I was looking for something that wasn’t too obvious, that would work for men, women and kids: an alternative to the shark, the dolphin or the frog.”

Deda Silvestro to Il Giorno

Our story

2003 to today

2003
The idea: colour and prints in the lanes, for people who train every day.
2004
The X-back
BONESWIMMER is born. The first new thing is the X-cross back on the women's swimsuit, still our signature today. From the early years the website is an online shop, with a configurator to choose model, print and solid colour.
2013
The film «Il Mondo Boneswimmer» opens the doors of the Gallarate atelier. The catalogue already counts around eighty prints.
2018
In March the Gallarate main store opens: 200 m² of shop in a 500 m² building with atelier and warehouse. The first stores inside swimming pools follow, in Varese and Lodi.
Today
Ten websites in eight languages, production capacity of over 37,000 garments a year, seasonal collections and capsules such as those with Taffo and Vira.

The collections

Every season, a story

Each season tells a different story, from the American college to visionary nature, from digital pop to the darker side. Alongside the seasons come the capsules: limited editions born from a meeting, like the one with Taffo, signed with plenty of irony.

Made in Italy

Made in family

Designed in our atelier, printed at a print works nearby, cut in a family workshop, sewn by partner workshops between Gallarate and Busto Arsizio, in Italian technical fabrics. Every garment comes back to the atelier to be checked before it ships.

How and where we make our swimwear

The stores

Come and see us

The Gallarate main store is also our home: shop, atelier and warehouse under one roof. You will also find us in BONESWIMMER stores and at stockists in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont.

Main store and atelier · Via Alfredo Cappellini 18, Gallarate

Visit us