Meet 24-year-old Evie Ganikis, who is hand-sewing bikinis in her Yiayia’s basement for her brand Doxxia Swim. Four years ago, when struggling to find bathers that were size inclusive, she turned to her Yiayia Eùdoxia – a seamstress originally from Kalamata – for help.
A fantastic final product inspired Evie to start her own bust friendly, ethically made bikini brand. Now that Evie has moved her studio into Eùdoxia’s home she can ask for advice on changing threads or overlocking when needed, but has also inherited the perks of her grandmother’s social life.
“It’s so funny, [Yiayia’s friends] just come around in the morning for a coffee, we’ll be sitting and chatting, and I’ll be sewing.” Evie says. She laughs, “I’m almost living a pensioner lifestyle.”
It’s a one woman show behind Doxxia Swim, with Evie commandeering the pattern making, designing, sewing, and running of the social media and marketing, which she tells me can be a struggle to balance. One part of the design process she won’t forgo is the responsible sourcing of her fabric.
Evie tells me she’s not a fan of fast fashion labels that use cheap labour in sweatshops overseas. Instead, she buys her material from manufacturers in Melbourne.
Another element to creating ethical pieces is to develop them with longevity in mind, not only quality-wise, but ensuring the item will be loved and worn for years to come — not discarded once the next trend comes around. Doxxia Swim doesn’t stock the styles you’ll currently see in shop windows, instead looking to Evie’s family members from Greece for style guidance.
“Ever since I was young my family and I would sit around, go through our family photos and discuss memories … They’ve taken all of these film photos when they were younger during that minimalist era of the 90’s, and I loved all the bikinis … it’s my mum and my auntie and my yiayia.
“I’ve always admired [the photos], they’re fantastic. I’d put them in scrapbooks and hang them around the house. Now that I have a business, I look at what bikini colours they’d wear, and the style of photography they did.”
“My Yiayia is over the moon that [the brand] is based around our family. She’s always raving about it to her friends.”
Evie says she hangs out with her Yiayia “more than anyone else in the world”, joking that she was basically part of the furniture in the family house growing up. “We are inseparable… like attached at the hip.
“She is the soul of the brand, and that’s why I named it after her,” from Eùdoxia to Doxxia.
“She emigrated to Australia 55 years ago with my grandfather, and had to start a whole new life. By coming here, she has given me the opportunity to do this kind of job [in fashion designing], there’s no way I could do this in Greece. Australia is a lot more fashion forward.”
Two generations later, Evie now has access to a tight knit community of Greek Australians who support and love her brand, and that’s what keeps her going.
“I receive messages from girls saying that they used to struggle to find bikinis that fit them, and now they love my products … knowing I can help someone with a problem, that helps me sleep at night,” she says.
As Evie puts it, Doxxia Swim is a love letter to her Yiayia Eùdoxia, who taught her not only to sew but also to love herself and embrace her body.