Swimming Past the Present

By: Jacorey Moon Photography by Emporia Meng

Zipped talks to the designer of Chromat, the bodywear brand for everyone.

For the tenth anniversary show of Chromat, Lina Bradford, the trans DJ, stomped down the runway. Bradford’s curvaceous, voluptuous body juxtaposed to the tall, slender Asian-Pacific trans model Genna Rocero, exemplifies the brand’s mission. The blue light illuminating against the white stage complemented the brightly colored swimsuits worn while models walked hand-inhand on the runway. Bradford wore the one-piece wrap suit consisting of a hot pink piece of fabric wrapped around a red asymmetrical bodice, cinched with a silver buckle. Rocero wore the Stallion suit, complete with a hot pink and red thong one-piece with the midsection cut out and silver buckles on each hip, red strips of fabric fluttering in the wind of her stride. Inclusivity wasn’t only the vibe for the night, it’s a way of life for the brand.

In an industry that tokenizes representation, there are a few strongarms setting the trend of where fashion’s standards should be. While some brands find solace in casting as little diversity as possible, other brands like Chromat, embrace it. Chromat, designed by Becca McCharen-Tran, is a bodywear brand that strives for inclusion, in all terms of the word.

When people think about diversity, they tend to think of fair skin models with slightly heavier body types or they tend to think about the Ashley Grahams of the world. Rarely do designers cater to a wide range of shapes and create a truly inclusive experience for their consumers. McCharen-Tran has set out to change that industry standard.

After obtaining an architecture degree, Tran thought about how she could merge the worlds of architecture and fashion to create a new brand for everybody. She packed up all of her things after following a friend’s advice and moved to New York City in order to pursue Chromat and a full-time job in architecture. Eventually, she realized that Chromat was her calling. Now based in Miami, Chromat continues to push the boundaries of known fashion constraints.

From athleisure that will make you want to get physical to swimsuits that will make you into a total Chromat babe, McCharen-Tran designs for the right size, every size. With over 155,000 followers on Instagram, Chromat has become an exclusive producer of these products for their target clientele. Zipped had a chance to speak to the designer about what diversity looks like for the brand, sustainability in fashion, and what’s expected for years to come.

Diversity is a topic that’s being oversaturated in fashion, but Chromat has always featured models that were never given a platform in the past, rather that is because of their size, gender identity, ability, etc. Why is so important to showcase diversity in every sense of the word?

It’s really important to showcase diversity and be a truly inclusive brand because I think lives depend on it. I can only speak for myself, but growing up and only seeing one type of beauty, I thought that to be desirable, successful, or beautiful, you had to be skinny. It was really damaging and destructive for me, and I know that so many other people go through a similar experience of selfhate and having eating disorders. There’s just so many negative repercussions to promoting such a singular, narrow definition of beauty, so it’s important to use the platform that we have at Fashion Week and creating these campaigns. It’s really important for us to explode that narrow definition of beauty.

When we’re talking about diversity in the fashion industry– it’s easy to find a model of any shape, size, and gender presentation. When we were starting out, we had to be really intentional with who we cast, but at this point, casting or hiring a black model or hiring a plus-size model is really the bare minimum a brand can do. The conversation is turning towards the people behind the scenes and how you can’t really have an inclusive brand if your whole team is white and cis, you have a singular viewpoint behind the camera.

Can you describe to me the Chromat customer? How do you think wearing your brand plays into their identities?

Chromat babes are strong, powerful, bold, unapologetic, not afraid to stand out, creative, and more. We love highlighting stories and featuring Chromat babes that inspire us. For example, the “Pool Rules” shot that we did a few summers ago, we wanted the lifeguards at the pool to create an inclusive and accepting place. We featured 5 amazing Chromat babes: Erika Hart, Geena Rocero, Denise Bidot, Mama Cax, and Emme. You should definitely look up all five of them. They are all amazing people. Erika Hart is a non-binary, sex educator, and activist for social and racial justice. Mama Cax is an amazing style blogger andvisibility advocate. She also has a prosthetic leg. Geena Rocero is an amazing activist for gender. She’s a trans Filipina woman who has done a lot of advocacy work around gender identity. Denise Bidot is an amazing Latina mom and body positive activist. She is one of the first plus-size models we ever worked with back in the day. And Emme, of course, a lot of people regard as the first plus size supermodels. Back in the ‘90s, she did a lot of Lane Bryant stuff. We wanted to utilize our platform and campaign to highlight the stories of these amazing people who are changing the industry and the world in so many different ways. So that’s who Chromat babes are, they’re all making the world a better place.

Sustainability is another one of your focuses, how has this concept incorporated throughout your business?

especially since I moved to Miami. Being on the front lines of climate change here has impacted the way I think about my own footprint through Chormat and personally how I’m contributing to environmental degradation or restoration. For example, the use of toxic dyes that are poisoning the waterways or mountains of fast fashion trash. There is so much that the fashion industry contributes to ruining the Earth. We are trying to rethink how we have been doing it in the past and how we can improve. Since we started doing swimwear, we used recycled textiles from fishing nets. So, fishing people get a hole in their net, it costs them money to return the net or trash it, so people just drop them in the ocean. All these ghost nets trap sea life and pollute the ocean. There’s diving teams that go out and pull up these ghost nets from the bottom of the ocean, then this factory in Italy melts down the nets into nylon and weaves or spin them into a thread. The swimwear we create is made from this recycled nylon. It’s really important to continue to think of more ways in which we can reuse materials that already exist instead of always creating new ones and adding to the pile of trash.

You mentioned in the past that you look at designing your collection through the intersections of technology, architecture, and fashion. How do you see these concepts continuing to influence your outlook when creating?

Coming from an architecture background, I’ll always think of design in that way. Architecture has influenced the way I think of garments as tools. Over the years, Chromat developed several fashion technology prototypes that physically react and change based on data that reads the body and its surroundings. We made a bra that opened and closed vents if it realized you’re getting hot and sweaty. Through sensors and shape-memory alloys, we’ve done other things over the years. I hope to continue to develop garments as tools.

So my last question is, every industry feels like it’s always getting more crowded and that can make young creators and designers nervous. What’s your advice for them?

I know what you mean. I definitely feel that all the time: “What makes me special?” There’s so many brands that don’t have the opportunities I have. Why did I benefit? There is so much talent out there. My motivation to get into fashion wasn’t necessarily to get rich or famous; that was never my intention. From the beginning, I started working in fashion [because] it was something fun for me. It was a hobby. It brought me joy. I still love doing it. I’m always inspired creatively in this medium so that will never change. No matter if I’m famous or not, rich or not. My own personal passion will never change, so that would be the only thing I could say. Evaluate why you’re in this. If it’s because you truly love it, then you have no choice. You have to do what you love as best you can, try to take any opportunity that is given to you, and make the most of it.