A gaggle of girls, including Gisele, are wrapped up in the bathing suits from Jo de Mer, the latest It designer from Rio de Janiero. De Mer’s skimpy line is undeniably sexy, but our eyes are trained on Linde, a label that’s less Ipanema and more Taormina.

“Linde is a very personal and colorful collection designed for a sophisticated modern woman who often travels and just looks for the perfect piece to accompany her around the world following the sun,” says designer Fridtjof Linde. For the German-born former Christian Lacroix assistant, it’s a kind of haute quirkiness, with underwater scenes printed on bathing suits, cover-ups and jersey dresses, and accents like hand-embroidered lobsters connecting the top and bottom of a one-piece suit. Her Octopussy-titled spring collection wouldn’t necessarily conjure up literal images of octopuses decorating swimsuits, but that’s exactly what you’ll find on some of selections from the label — lobsters, sharks, and corals also turn up as prints without losing any of the sex appeal the James Bond-inspired name suggests. Though inspired by the coral, lagoon blue, and shell colors found in Caribbean waters, the chic of Linde is all Mediterranean.

Cute motifs aside, any woman will tell you it’s all in the cut. And when it comes to a successfully tailored bathing suit, Linde has some fetching features. “Shapes are low-waisted, sexy, close to the body and breathe a bit of seventies glamour,” Linde explains. Several designs show fabrics stretching from four points of a disk-like center, playing with cut-outs and other midriff accents that give the feeling of hot tops cum maillot de bain. Boy shorts and the classic string bikini that accentuate the right curves round out the offer.

The line sells at Calypso stores in the US, Harvey Nichols in London and Maria Luisa in Paris.

-Jason Campbell

Photos: Linde swimwear