Nara Swim
Credits
Photography: Geoff Matautia Talent: Gyllian Falute Taei
In a world of fast trends and fleeting seasons, Sarah Ross built her career on knowing exactly what sells—fast. With years of experience behind the scenes at global giants like ASOS, THE ICONIC, and White Fox, she lived and breathed the pace of fashion at its most relentless. But the deeper she got, the louder one question became: What if there was more to the story?
Enter Nara Swim.
Launched after nearly a decade in fashion buying, Nara is Sarah’s answer to a saturated market, and her antidote to the disposable mindset that often drives it. Rooted in longevity, grounded in culture, and led by meaningful collaboration, Nara isn’t just another swimwear brand. It’s a platform for art, digital and handcrafted, contemporary and inherited, to meet the sea.
With a sharp eye for detail and a deeper purpose behind every print, Sarah’s approach is anything but surface-level. She’s rewriting the swimwear playbook, one slow, intentional piece at a time.
It’s not about keeping up. It’s about going deeper. This is Nara.
Scope
Artist Partnership
Custom Print Development
Creative Direction
Campaign & Marketing Concepts
Visual Asset Delivery
Cultural Protocols & Safeguarding
Cultural Education & Immersion
Our Approach
Creating the foundation for this collaboration required more than a design solution, it called for a framework grounded in both cultural integrity and commercial viability. From shaping the creative concept to co-developing the print and campaign narrative, every element was approached with intention.
At the heart of this process was the Salu Family of Savai’i, Samoa, an intergenerational collective of women artists whose knowledge spans three generations. As cultural connectors and creative producers, Susu & Meli worked closely with the family to guide the development of two custom prints. Our role was to ensure that their values and visual language were upheld at every step, and that the process remained respectful, collaborative, and commercially sound.
Our challenge was to create a pattern that could carry the weight of story and sovereignty, while also establishing a distinct visual identity capable of anchoring a new swimwear brand in a highly competitive market.
This required more than aesthetic alignment. It required cultural accountability. Part of our work was guiding the brand to build a clear, respectful understanding of the artists they were working with, their lived realities, the context they create within, and the cultural frameworks that inform their work.
We weren’t just designing a print. We were building a process, one that embedded ethical collaboration into the foundation of the brand, and made space for genuine impact.
The result was An Ode to Her—a unifying creative direction that honoured the hands that carry culture forward, and grounded the debut collection in meaning, beauty, and purpose.
