Olean sisters’ swimwear line featured at NY, DC shows | News | oleantimesherald.com

2022-09-24 01:28:29 By : Ms. Janice Zheng

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Partly cloudy skies. Low 39F. Winds light and variable..

Partly cloudy skies. Low 39F. Winds light and variable.

Some of the models wearing Makai Swim during the New York Fashion Week show.

Olivia and Noelle Anzivine, the sisters who founded swimwear company Makai Swim, are shown at New York Fashion Week.

Some of the models wearing Makai Swim during the New York Fashion Week show.

Olivia and Noelle Anzivine, the sisters who founded swimwear company Makai Swim, are shown at New York Fashion Week.

OLEAN — From drawing pictures of clothes in their sketchbooks as children to launching their own swimwear line in 2021, the Anzivine sisters recently saw their fashion business dreams continue in New York City.

Olivia and Noelle Anzivine are the owners of Makai Swim, a small swimwear business the Olean High School grads developed during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Business has been pretty good,” Noelle Anzivine told the Times Herald. “There’s been a lot of learning lessons and trial-and-error this past year, which is definitely good for us and will help us grow into the future.”

A highlight from the past years has been the opportunities for the sisters to attend some of the biggest fashion and swimwear shows of the year, starting with Miami Swim Week in mid-July. Noelle Anzivine said it was a huge goal of theirs to attend the show, and attending this past summer allowed them to assess the scene out there and make connections for next year.

“We talked to one of the other designers who was in the show, and she was able to give us a lot of insight,” Anzivine said. “She was super helpful and told us what she thought and how she got into the show.”

The Anzivines also unexpectedly met one of the head figures in the show. After a conversation with him, the sisters were able to secure invitations to the DC Swim Week and New York Fashion Week shows in early and mid-September, respectively.

“Being at New York Fashion Week felt like a ‘pinch-me’ moment for us because it has always been a lifelong goal of ours since we were little,” Anzivine said. “It’s all about connections and networking.”

Anzivine said preparing for such big shows was nerve-wracking at first — “I had never done a fashion show before,” but it was something the sisters had been working toward for years. She said they didn’t really know how to prepare or what to expect.

“As soon as we got there, I felt a lot better because all the other designers who were also in the show were super nice and super helpful,” she recalled. “Everybody that I met was seriously so amazing and it really went perfectly.”

The Anzivines promote their pieces as sustainable, eco-friendly and made in the USA. Noelle said they are mostly online right now, but they do have the line for sale in a few places in Buffalo, Rochester and nearby Ellicottville. She said they also do pop-up shops, the next one planned for Fall Festival in Ellicottville in a couple weeks.

“We want to start doing a bunch more pop-up shops,” Anzivine said. “And we want to get our line in more shops and boutiques.”

The business began as a daydream while quarantined in their family’s hunting cabin during the early months of COVID-19. They had just left spring break in Florida and were still thinking about the beach.

“My sister and I have always wanted to start our own business, and we decided this would be a perfect time,” Noelle Anzivine said. “Both of our passion for fashion started as far back as I can remember.”

That dream was not all that far-fetched, as the sisters are the daughters of an entrepreneurial family that ran Swatt Baking Company in Olean. Their father, Leonard, owned Swatt Baking with their uncle, Lee Anzivine.

Their aunt, Lynn Anzivine, is well-known in the community for her founding of the successful non-profit, The Pink Pumpkin Project, which helps people who are fighting breast cancer.

Back in their school days, Noelle said they would draw designs in a sketchbook and dream about the day we would have our own fashion shows and make our own clothes. When they were quite young, they would sew together little outfits and wear them to school.

In the works are plans to begin a men’s line and they hope to expand to get their bikinis in more boutiques and shops.

“We just got a place in Miami as well, so we want to go there to expand and hopefully get into some places down in Miami,” Noelle said.

(Contact editor/reporter Kellen Quigley at kquigley@oleantimesherald.com.)

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