Cult Swim Brand Hunza G Goes for Growth

Business of Fashion

22-05-2025

LONDON — The distinctive crinkle of a Hunza G swimsuit has been a feature of creative director Georgiana Huddart's life for as far back as she can remember.
Her mother wore the brand to see her through multiple pregnancies, the material stretching and contracting with her belly. While the label had closed down and faded from fashion by the time Huddart hit her teenage years, the notion of swimwear that flexed with the female body stuck with her.
A chance discovery of a rack of old Hunza products during a vintage shopping trip in Berlin in 2006 turned a nostalgic memory into the spark of a business idea. Huddart bought the whole rack and began wearing the products to summer holidays and parties.
But while she started snapping up all the old product she could find on eBay, for years Huddart couldn't find anyone to reproduce the distinctive crinkle fabric for her. Then in 2015 a mutual acquaintance saw her wearing a Hunza dress at a party and connected her to Peter Meadows, who founded the brand in 1984. Then in his late 60s, Meadows was retired, but he still had a stash of the original crinkle and was open to the idea of reviving the label. They added a 'G' to the brand in a nod to Huddart's first name and within weeks they'd made a plan to relaunch.
Huddart bootstrapped the company, hiring three of her brother's friends to help pack and ship orders. 'We had no PR, no marketing. It was me with a laptop and like three teenagers helping me,' she said.
But customers loved the product, a one-size-fits all swimsuit with a distinctive, but low-key look that hugged curves, while hiding lumps and bumps. With no marketing budget, the brand leaned on social media to gain traction. Early posts by models like Adwoa Aboah and Georgia May Jagger helped boost visibility, as did purchases by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Rihanna, but Huddart also leaned on posts from every-day customers to populate the brand's feed; a decision that lent the label a feel of authenticity and relevance.
'It wasn't like super fashionable women all the time,' she said. 'In the first year, we'd have a post of Rihanna, but then next to her might be just a customer from Wandsworth who had three kids who looked great on her holiday in the South of France.'
Though hardly cheap — Hunza G's swimsuits today retail at between £175 to £215 ($234–$288) — the pricing was competitive when compared to high-end swim brands like Zimmerman, Heidi Klein, Melissa Odabash and Eres.
'That didn't really exist at the time across any brands,' said Huddart. 'It was like you were either super elitist and aspirational or you were high street.'
The combination of product performance, social media marketing and accessible pricing proved a winning formula. The brand has been consistently profitable and generated nearly £30 million ($40 million) in sales last year, giving it a solid toehold in an intensely fragmented swimwear market.
A management buyout supported by a group of investors late last year gave Meadows an exit and made Huddart the controlling shareholder. With a solid financial foundation and the appointment of former Ssense and Pangaia executive Krishna Nikhil as CEO in April, the company says it's now poised to ramp up growth. Hunza G's distinctive crinkly swimwear has garnered a cult following, bringing in sales of nearly £30 million last year. (Hunza G)
Over the next two years, Hunza G is aiming to double sales, fuelled by international expansion and the introduction of new product categories. But its longer-term ambitions are far greater: to carve out a distinctive and enduring niche in swim in the same way Lululemon has for yoga pants and Skims has for shapewear.
'[Hunza] created the idea of one size fits swim,' said Nikhil. 'When you deliver something in a category that redefines the category and connects your community, I think that's when you can drive true growth and scaling.' Brand Building
Swimwear is a tough nut to crack.
The market is growing, with global sales of women's swim rising more than 20 percent over the last decade, from $13.7 billion in 2015 to $16.8 billion last year, according to Euromonitor. But it's dominated by a plethora of small players, with few brands able to carve out a dominant position or scale as they have in other sectors.
Hunza G is not alone in its ambitions. Euromonitor projects the swimwear market is likely to continue to grow steadily over the coming years, with its fragmentation creating opportunities for M&A and consolidation. Andie, an eight-year-old, US-based swimwear brand with $50 million in annual revenue acquired apparel label Richer Poorer last week, aiming to leverage the deal to double sales in the next three to five years.
Hunza G wants to achieve the same growth in the next two. Organically.
'There's a kind of pent up ambition for the brand and business,' said Tom Fleming, a founding partner at venture fund Venrex Investment Management, which came on as a minority investor in Hunza G in last year's management buyout and has also backed brands like Orlebar Brown and Charlotte Tilbury. ' [But] it's going to be harder to have a breakout brand in the swimwear category.' That's because customers are very discerning, equally fickle and are spoiled for choice in a space that runs on trends. 'What scares me about this sector is that it feels like, as new collections launch, it's like investing in a new business every season,' Fleming added.
By contrast, what makes Hunza G distinctive is the crinkly, form-fitting fabric that has defined its look since the '80s, giving it a stable brand signature. Its forgiving stretch, shapewear-style control and resulting one-size-fits-all products have also given the label an edge in a sector where shopping is often fraught and demoralising. Women are often different sizes on top and bottom, making it a chore to find swimwear that actually fits, not to mention the body image issues raised when shopping for garments that are the closest most people will get to public nudity.
'Putting on a swimming costume that makes you feel like your best self and you never thought you'd feel like that, it's quite unusual,' said Huddart.
Over the last decade, the brand has fended off the inevitable dupes by developing new styles, but also continuously investing in improving the performance and feel of the fabric. Its distinctive look has allowed it to carve out a solid base from which to grow, without leaning on heavy branding or flash-in-the-pan trends.
'This is universal enough to not go out of fashion that quickly,' said Bosse Myhr, buying director for menswear, womenswear and childrenswear at Selfridges. 'Innovation is important… but a little black dress is still a little black dress. It's almost like Hunza defined that market [in swim] in that they have something they are ultimately known for.'
When the British retailer started stocking the brand a few years before the pandemic, 'any drop we got sold out within two or three weeks,' said Myhr. It's still among Selfridges' best-selling swimwear brands. 'They were almost like a disruptor in the market,' Myhr added. 'The crinkle fabric bikinis, it's a very inclusive one-stop-shop for a lot of people.' Going for Growth
To fuel its growth ambitions, Hunza G is looking to expand internationally, deepening its wholesale relationships and lucrative partnerships with hotels (the brand is stocked in 552 doors, which together drive about 50 percent of the brand's sales, with the remainder coming from its own e-commerce channel). It's introducing new, more trend-led collections, like a recent gingham drop to broaden its offering. But its best-selling product remains its trusty square-neck crinkle swimsuit.
'We know we have to continue to invest in creating exceptional products, making the fabric better and better,' said Nikhil. Hunza G has introduced new collections, like a gingham range, as it looks to expand its offering. (Hunza G)
Despite the retail chaos of the last few months, the brand is relatively well positioned, with manufacturing in the UK, Europe and Morocco — regions with limited exposure to the Trump administration's tariff threats. The brand's one-size-fits-all offering also helps keep its inventory with stockists lean and streamlined, which is helpful at a time of market uncertainty.
The challenge ahead will be to navigate the current turmoil, while charting a path to growth that doesn't sacrifice the brand's essence and desirability.
'Any trend-driven brand ultimately has a cap on its growth,' said Nikhil. 'Hunza is very different than that in that it is performance and emotional.'
'We really want everybody to be buying a Hunza,' added Huddart. 'We've barely scratched the surface.'