The evening was held in celebration of South Beach Swimwear‘s debut beachwear collection, which I was personally very impressed with. Not only did they have bikinis, one pieces and sarong cover ups (and the such!), they also had a brand new range of loungewear. Speaking of which, I would love to get my paws on one of their not-yet released dressing gowns. Not very glamorous, but very fluffy and something I would love to slip into on a lazy Sunday night!

It was a casual night, with plenty of strawberry bellinis and Vita Coco natural coconut water to sip on as we browsed the collection. I also tried my very first frozen yoghurt, which I chose to be chocolate flavour, obviously, and it was yummy! The collection was split into beachwear and swimwear, beachwear consisting of kaftans and pretty crochet dresses and swimwear consisting of… Well… Stuff you’d swim in! The aim of the collection was to be affordable yet fashionable and I definitely think South Beach Swimwear pulled this off.

Although not all the collection was to my taste, I can definitely see it being successful. As y’all know, I’m not one for neons, aztec prints or snakeskin – they are just prints I would never wear and trends I’m not a fan of – we all know these have been huge this Spring and are set to continue well into Summer 2013. They are definitely popular choices for the masses and some of the very pieces have even been seen on celebrities, such as Nicole Sherzinger and Tulisa Contostavlos.

However, there were a lot of floral prints I absolutely loved. I personally don’t really wear bikinis at all, I would always choose a one piece ove them, and I was delighted to see a small collection of swimming costumes. All the one pieces had a modern twist, too. There were a lot of cut out sides (monokinis, I think the kids call ’em) and bare backs, which I think is a nice way to bridge between a bikini and swimsuit for those of us not confident enough to get our tummies out.

I’m also over the moon that I won the South Beach Swimwear raffle and was able to take home my chosen swimsuit, which I absolutely have fallen in love with. My prize was the Kelly Floral Frill Bandeau swimsuit and I can’t tell you how much I love it. The print is such a lovely vintage-esque pattern without looking old fashioned and the cut out back gives me the chance to bare a little more flesh without exposing my whole middrift to the world. It’s such a flattering shape and fits so well!