[Fashion Week]
“Anchors away as I take you from one glamorous port to another.” The first opening line of the brochure at The Gottex fashion show during New York’s fashion week, on September 8th, rung through my head as I was preparing to set sail into the world of fashion through another designer’s eyes.
The young leaders of Gottex, Lea and Armin Goettlieb began the creation of stunning swimwear in 1954 and climbed their way up the ladder of fashion and turned men’s heads as their models showed off Gottex’ swim collection.
As I watched the show I saw how every piece was luxuriously designed with 18 karat gold details. Unfortunately, for many pieces, I found them to be too delicate to be worn. I personally prefer to wear gold as jewelry rather then on my bikini or swimsuit, however it was great to view an artist’s perspective of beauty and grace as a woman takes a day out by the pool or beach. 
My most favored swimwear was a high neck swimsuit with black on one side and white on the other and a large tulip flower of orange and grayish color drawn in the center.
The styles were very chic and alluring, the delicacy of each piece were beautifully put together to create a perfect ensemble. The colors ranged from simple black and white to stunning orange, pink and yellow.
As I spoke to Mr. Goettlieb, the first question that came to mind was his inspiration and with much enthusiasm he responded, “ My inspiration is every morning in my life…”
He enjoys life to the fullest and he teaches the new generation who are also interested in becoming designers that they should do the same, “The new generation should learn how to build up a collection and learn about taste.” “My main goal,” says Gottlieb, “…is to try to fit a woman [in swimwear] so that they would look beautiful.”
The Goettlibs began their journey through fashion with a raincoat factory in Hungary as well as in Israel. Eventually, they changed their style completely to swimwear as Lea created pieces simply with fabric and a sewing machine.
He had once said in an interview in 1996 that his aim was to form a fashion world of swimwear. This is exactly what he did and his legacy lives on under the sun and in the water.
