Leslie Marmol Is Making A Splash With VIRAGO SWIM

The Statement Jacket a Trans

By tara delorenzo

Inspired by her daughter and with the hope of empowering women, Leslie Marmol, mother of two and Bergen County resident, launched VIRAGO SWIM, a swim line for all women.

With a lifelong passion for design, Marmol’s intent for her line is to celebrate women of every background and not only make them feel seen but make them feel beautiful and confident. The core of the line goes all the way to the name, virago, which signifies a strong, female warrior, she said.

For the 36-year-old mother of two, the line is very personal, as it was partly a gift to her daughter. But design was always something she wanted to pursue. As a child, she would play with paper dolls but instead of dressing them in the clothes they’d come with, she’d take blank paper and design her own clothes for them. When she had gotten pregnant though, she put her design dreams on hold.

During her maternity leave with her second child, she felt ready for a change.

“I have this sketchbook I’ve been sketching in for years, and when I looked at it, it was just a feeling of ‘Why am I putting this on hold? Am I putting this on hold because of fear?’” she said. “It was a matter of the time is now and just go and do it, and I just had an epiphany and said I was going to do this and while I do this, I’m also showing my kids no matter how big or small your dream is or how scared you are to pursue it, what’s worse is not trying. Failure doesn’t matter. If you fail, at least you tried and gained experience and knowledge from it. But to pursue something and go for it, I had a drive in me to just do it and prove I could do it. That was really the push that gave me that feeling.”

When it came to pursuing swimwear, that came from her own experience of trying on swimsuits at the mall shortly after her daughter had been born.

“I had just had the baby, and I remember having no confidence and feeling horrible in everything I put on because nothing fit me and I remember in that moment just thinking, ‘If I could design these pieces, I would make it so a woman felt empowered,’” Marmol said. “It was something I always wanted to do and something that was always in the back of my mind. I always wanted to make women feel empowered and confident and not hate the process of trying a swimsuit on.”

VIRAGO SWIM launched in May 2020 on Marmol’s daughter’s birthday. The goal is to have designs for every woman, and for Marmol, inspiration comes from all over. In her family, and for women everywhere, there are a lot of different body shapes, and she really wanted to highlight that in her own line, so the swimsuits are made for every woman. Her hopes are to make women feel happy and confident.

“My favorite part of designing is the hope that the end resolution is something that’s going to make a woman feel amazing,” she said.

Launching VIRAGO SWIM was a very vulnerable time for Marmol, as this line became a way of expressing herself. Starting this line was something she expressed made her feel shy at first and excited, and she just hoped it would get a positive reaction. But as the feedback came in, her excitement only grew.

“It was a ton of emotions and now I feel empowered,” she said. “I feel strong and excited because I get the feedback about how much people love it, and it confirms what I’m doing. It keeps me want- ing to continue doing it because it’s not just creating and selling a swimsuit, it’s giving a reminder to women that you are everything, with or without the swimsuit, and to hear that from the community of women who have shopped and the women I call my viragos, That is everything, so it’s super exciting and I love it – I really love it.”

Since the launch of the line was in the start of the pandemic too, Marmol had a lot of extra hurdles to work through and described it as a lot of trials and tribulations to make it come to fruition. But having everything in the standstill that was COVID allowed her to take advantage of other opportunities that she may not have had an opportunity to have otherwise, she said, but having the unique challenges allowed her to push herself out of her comfort zone and find creative solutions.

VIRAGO SWIM was also able to participate in both Miami Swim Week and New York Swim Week.

For the future of the line, Marmol would love to expand the brand into other items of clothing, but for now she’s keeping her focus on the swim line. And her main focus will always be showcasing every woman.

Her campaigns for her website and all her work all incorporate all different types of women. Growing up, she had always felt like underrepresented in the media, as a short Latina woman. So, for own work, she wants all women represented. And when it comes to her fashion shows even, she asks the models what swimsuit speaks to them individually to help them feel more empowered.

“For me, the way I’d like you to feel in my swimsuit is I want you to feel like you are strong, you are a warrior, you are a virago,” Marmol said. “I want you to feel amazing and feel good and confident. When you wear my piece, I want you to get that extra strut in your step and that’s my goal always.”

Another important aspect of the line is that everything is done sustainable. In a world of fast fashion, Marmol is looking to reduce waste and only makes her orders based on demand. Even the packaging is made of compostable material.

And now that her daughter is 16, she is also happy to be involved with the work her mother is doing, and Marmol is happy to have her daughter part of it all.

“It’s funny because the first model I used for my campaign, I wanted my daughter to see herself, so my daughter has big, curly hair, so the model also had big, curly hair and my daughter is a little darker skin, so for her it’s a matter of her being like, ‘Oh, that looks like me,’” she said “We’re in a day and age where all we see are beautiful people and it’s hard to not compare, so I don’t want people to compare themselves. I want people to see things and relate and say, ‘Oh my goodness, I can see myself, I would love to rock that.’ So, I see the confidence it gives her and she loves to wear my swimsuits, which is really fun.”

Marmol hopes all women feel that both in their swimsuits and in their lives. She encourages everyone to find the spirit that inspired her own line and go after their own dreams as well.

“Don’t let fear take hold of you because whatever you want to pursue, that feeling is always going to be there and if it’s always there, it’s meant for you to go after,” Marmol said, “Forget about fear and just push and do whatever you want to do and you’re going to see it succeed because if you’re passionate about it, it will succeed no matter what.”