Agustina Palacio

Agustina Palacio has always been crazy for the beach and passionate about swimwear, so naturally, it’s fitting that she become a swimwear designer.  And fitting, it is.  Every stitch on her designs represents the swimwear lifestyle that she adores: lounging at pool side hotels, vacationing at exotic beaches, sailing and surfing, attending pool parties and just enjoying the beautiful turquoise water, all activities and lovely reasons why anyone would enjoy purchasing just the right swimsuit to slip into.   

In the summertime as a little girl, Agustina would travel with her family from Argentina to a dream destination, Punta del Este, a beach in Uruguay.  It was there her passion for swimwear was set.  During her two months of vacation, little Agustina would watch the older girls wearing beautiful bikinis and one day, wanting to emulate them, she cut her one-piece suit and turned it into her very own original bikini design.

Throughout school, Agustina knew that she wanted to do something related to fashion, however just designing was not enough.  “I was interested in being able to sell a line more than how to solely design, so that is why I studied Marketing,” Agustina says. 

In 2000, after completing college, she packed her bag, including her huge bikini selection and headed for Miami.  It was here that she was constantly questioned by other bikini aficionados as to where she bought her bikinis.  Eventually, she and a friend decided to start a swimwear line since they were not excited about any of the bikini designs they had seen in the market.  The two budding designers traveled to NYC to buy fabrics and started creating.  Shortly after arriving back to Miami, their creative juices were stopped short due to the September 11^th attacks. 

Agustina left for home, to Buenos Aires where she got married and had her first son.  And, more than just her son was born.  Continuing the work she began in Miami, Agustina sold bikinis to her friends and their friends and soon, her swimwear line, Nina Swim was also born in Buenos Aires.   

A few years later, she moved to NYC with her husband and son and was excited about the possibility of selling her Nina Swim designs in the US market. Agustina took a couple of years to learn about the market and to also learn about the identity of the Nina Woman.  “When I first started with the line I was a girl and my designs were very girly, but I grew up with the line and today, Nina Swim is a resort line, sophisticated yet still fresh and hip,” Agustina exclaims.

Agustina enjoys traveling with her family and takes inspiration from the exotic places she visits. However, what most inspires her are the people she sees walking the streets of New York.  “The diversity is what I find most interesting . . . I blend creativity with a knowledge-base of what piece is right for our Nina Swim woman.” 

Did you forget that Agustina also studied marketing? She proves that she’s not just behind designing bikinis, but that she is behind all aspects of growing her brand, from developing the website, lookbook and linesheets as well as social media and marketing strategies, photoshoots and fashion shoots.  Agustina is the Nina Woman, her own fashion muse.