About Us

Our Story

 It all started in Summer 2016... After a long day of auditing (yes, we - Charlotte & Olivia, the founders - were both accountants for many years before starting Toco), we took to the internet to do our annual swimwear shop, and we started a conversation which we'd had many times before...

"Ugh, why are there no nice bikinis in the UK that aren't cheap and ill-fitting or ridiculously expensive?!? By the time we order from abroad, with shipping + taxes, I'll be spending north of £150 on one bikini!!!"

And that's when Olivia said it... "Wouldn't you love to start our own swim brand?" - and from that moment, we started planning. Sketching what we'd want our first design to look like, brainstorming brand names and researching and contacting manufacturers. It took a full 12 months of late nights alongside our full-time jobs before we launched our first collection in June 2017, with just 2 styles - the Mayaro Top and the Toco Bottoms, two Hero pieces which still form part of our core collection today.

We draw a great deal of inspiration from our Trinidadian heritage (cue style names like Siparia, Maraval, Tabanca, Moka... The list goes on) - a place we hold very close to our hearts as our Mum is Trinidadian and we spent a great deal of time there throughout our childhoods, surrounded by gorgeous swimwear in bold cuts and colours... And in a country that embraces bearing it all irrespective of body shape both on the beach, but also in fabulous, bold and flamboyant carnival costumes once a year... unreservedly and proudly showcasing the female form in all its glory. We wanted to always keep this ethos at the core of our brand - Swimwear designed to stand out in and to make women feel confident, empowered, comfortable and sexy. 

 

Fast forward 4 years and here we are, 6 collections in, one pandemic later and no longer accountants! We've grown our community of women to over 10,000 worldwide and each year more of you fall in love with Toco with over 40% of our customers being repeat customers! We've been featured in Vogue, Grazia, The Independent, Daily Mail, The Express, High Snobiety, The Telegraph... The list goes on. We absolutely love creating pieces that hundreds of women tell us make them feel amazing.