Ludovic de Saint Sernin introduces a new chapter in his creative evolution with the relaunch of the swimwear line for Spring Summer 2025, staged in a place layered with personal and cultural resonance. Fire Island, long regarded as a vital refuge for queer expression, sets the tone for this body-focused campaign, which revisits the setting of the brand’s first imagery. This time, Ludovic returns with a sharpened vision and expanded collection, including updated versions of the Eyelet Brief and Thong, along with a new Swim Short. Each piece carries the signature grommet lozenge, a motif that reflects the brand’s coded sensuality.
Photographer Stuart Winecoff captures the Ludovic de Saint Swimwear campaign in the Fire Island Pines residence at 231 Bay Walk. The house once belonged to Gil Neary, a figure remembered by many as a collector, mentor, and host. The location holds symbolic value, as it marks the same site where Ludovic first introduced his underwear line. The photographs linger on tactile gestures and the charged quiet of shared spaces. Pool decks, mirrors, and beachfront railings frame bodies in repose and tension, channeling the erotic pulse that Fire Island has long sustained.
The campaign deepens Ludovic’s ongoing conversation with queer visual culture. Fire Island functions as a charged site of return, imbued with memory and desire. Through these images, the designer continues to build on a visual language shaped by prior engagements, including the collaboration with The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation during New York Fashion Week’s Autumn Winter 2024 season.
The collection’s physical launch mirrors its intimate tone. A summer pop-up at the Visitors Center on Fire Island Pines will serve as the only offline retail point for the LdSS Swimwear collection. The venue, operated by the Queer Culture Arts Foundation (QCAF), functions as a hybrid space combining a gallery, shop, and soft-serve bar. The non-profit exists to support and preserve queer creative voices, and the swimwear collection will appear alongside curated works by boundary-pushing queer artists.
The connection to Gil Neary runs through every layer of the campaign. QCAF co-founders Marc R. Christensen and Nicholas Ammaturo selected his former home to reflect a time when sensuality and openness defined Fire Island life. Neary helped cultivate a community that understood the body as a site of freedom and aesthetic inquiry.
Outside the Fire Island pop-up, the LdSS Swimwear collection will be available exclusively online at ludovicdesaintsernin.com. Both distribution methods reinforce the project’s personal tone – limiting access, encouraging engagement, and grounding the collection in spaces that affirm queer memory and presence.
