Local’s luxe swimwear makes a splash

Patreece Botheras was playing with her young daughters on the sun-drenched sand of a Fijian resort, chatting away with a friend, when she had the sort of pinch me moment most of us can only dream of.

Just two months earlier, Patreece’s first ever Duskii collection had landed.

And the North Shore local had whisked her family away so she could take a breath and celebrate her remarkable achievement.

Then, while building sand castles and watching the tide roll in, a woman strolled past wearing a swimsuit from her line.

“It was the first time in public that I’d actually seen someone wear one of my suits and I was in Fiji, it wasn’t down at Manly Beach… It was just one of those ‘Wow’ moments,” Patreece tells North Shore Living.

“My friend was like, ‘You’ve got to tell her’, and I said, ‘I can’t, that’s just embarrassing’. But for me it was that first moment where I thought to myself, ‘This is really cool’.”

Fast forward five years, and Patreece’s ‘Wow’ moments now come from supermodels, and invitations to some of the hottest tickets in town – think New York Fashion Week and Miami Swim Week.   

Supermodel Karlie Kloss was papped in a Duskii suit while swimming at a beach in Hawaii, and A-listers Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid have also flaunted their figures in Patreece’s luxury aquatic activewear.  

The wheels were set in motion when Patreece returned to Australia from a four-year stint living in Hong Kong.

Craving the surf and fresh air on the Northern Beaches, she went out looking for the perfect swimsuit for the summer.

Something chic for a mum that doesn’t cover you completely but that you also wouldn’t find in a Roxy store, as she describes it.

She walked up and down surf and apparel stores from Palm Beach to Narrabeen, and there was nothing that fit her niche, so she decided to do something about it.

“Look, I was absolutely terrified to be honest,” she recalls. “But from conception of the brand it just resonated really well with people and they loved the style and the feel of the fabrics.

“I’m still learning, every day something gets thrown at me that I haven’t dealt with before. But I just figure it out as I go, and I’ve got an amazing team here which really helps.”

As a single mother of two, one of whom has a severe intellectual disability, she’s also balancing the demands of the business with her family life.

“On a personal side, the juggle is the biggest challenge,” she explains.

“My girls mean the absolute world to me and this week for instance I’ve had one of them off sick and we’re just about to drop our next collection.

“In those situations, it does make it really tricky. But they always come first, so my days include after-school activities, pick-ups, cooking dinner, taking the dogs for a walk, and then once they’re asleep my laptop’s back open and I’m plugging away finishing everything I need to get done.”

Until recently that included working on this season’s collection – a mix of signature neoprene, teal leopard print and tortoise shell suits, and girls’ swimwear made of a luxe shine fabric.

But the piece de resistance of Duskii’s new collection is the eco range.

“We’re using a fabric called ‘Repreve’, made from recycled plastic bottles down in and around the ocean,” Patreece explains.

“We all need to do our bit for the environment and sustainability, so it’s something I’m very proud of.

“It did take a long time to get it right, because we did want to keep the softness and the quality, and this fabric is absolutely beautiful.”