Bikini (Stars n Stripes)

First released over 10 years ago, the Stars n Stripes Bikini is back with a few design tweaks for a more modern, fresh look and feel. Wear them as a bikini set or pair them with denim shorts and a baggy plain shirt for a relaxed summer vibe. :-)

The design is body hugging and looks best with the medium bust. You must remove the arms, head, and bust to wear the bikini top.

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Production Notes

The original, released over 10 years ago, used an off-the-shelf cotton fabric with a slightly fuzzy texture. Unfortunately, it’s no longer made, so we had to recreate it from scratch.

That turned out to be much more involved than simply printing stars and stripes onto fabric.

We went through multiple rounds of prototyping to determine the size of the stars, their density and spacing, as well as the width and spacing of the stripes. After each revision we produced samples to see how the pattern looked once sewn onto a Smart Doll. A design that looks balanced on a flat sheet of fabric can look completely different when wrapped around a 60 cm figure.

Once we settled on the pattern, we repeated the process for color. The photos show just some of the swatches we tested. Even subtle differences in contrast and saturation changed the overall aesthetic, so we kept refining the print until it looked just right.

The printed fabric is 88% polyester and 12% polyurethane. Polyester is ideal for sublimation printing, while the polyurethane provides the stretch needed for a snug fit. The binding uses the same fabric as our other bikinis for consistency.

As always, we also carried out testing for color transfer, staining and print durability to make sure the fabric performs as expected over time.

It’s one of those products that looks simple at first glance, but recreating something familiar often takes much longer than designing something entirely new.