Ludovic de Saint Sernin relaunches swimwear line, opens summer pop-up on Fire Island

French fashion brand Ludovic de Saint Sernin unveiled on Wednesday its return to swimwear, coinciding with racy a swimwear campaign lensed on New York state’s Fire Island.

The Paris-based label’s new swimwear line features an elevated reworking of the its eyelet brief and thong, as well as a new swim short, studded with the brand’s iconic grommet lozenges.

Captured by Stuart Winecoff at 231 Bay Walk, the swimwear campaign is vintage-inspired series of chiselled men in skimpy bathers, both playful and erotic, evoking for the summer months the queer sensibility known to the Ludovic de Saint Sernin brand.

Fire Island is a sentimental location for the fashion designer, who shot his brand’s first-ever campaign for his debut underwear line, at the hamlet of Fire Island Pines.

The campaign also highlights de Saint Sernin’s support for the queer history of New York City and its surroundings.  Such support can be seen in the brand’s previous collaboration with The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, presenting the partnership during the AW24 edition of New York Fashion Week.
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To celebrate brand’s reentry into the swimwear category, a summer-long pop-up will be held at the island’s Visitors Center, a hybrid gallery, store and soft-serve bar, run by the Queer Culture Arts Foundation (QCAF). Here, the brand’s new swimwear collection will be exclusively available to purchase, alongside a curation of products and artworks by queer creatives.

“Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s return to Fire Island was both intimate and intentional. We chose 231 Bay Walk – the former home of our mentor, friend, collector and queer legend Gil Neary – as the setting for this collaboration,” said Marc R. Christensen and Nicholas Ammaturo, co-founders of QCAF, a non-profit dedicated to preserving, supporting and celebrating queer culture and art.

“Gil helped shape the aesthetic and social spirit of Fire Island Pines in its most iconic era, serving as a gracious and giving host who taught countless newcomers what it means to truly live here. By situating the Ludovic de Saint Sernin campaign within this home, we honoured a lineage of sensual elegance, erotic freedom and archival intention. It was a homecoming – for Ludovic, for Gil’s memory, and for a timeless Fire Island aesthetic where the body is art, and the future wears very little.”

Born in Brussels and raised in Paris, Ludovic de Saint Sernin launched his eponymous label in 2017. Prior to that, he graduated from l’ESAA Duperré and worked for prominent fashion houses before going out on his own.