The girls trip takes many forms. A birthday milestone that demanded a destination. A reunion that had been postponed too many times. A collective decision, made in a group chat at some point in January, that this year the answer was yes. Whatever the occasion or the absence of one, the trip at this level shares certain qualities: the destination was chosen with intention, the itinerary has at least one restaurant that required a reservation made months in advance, and the group showed up for each other.
The swimwear matters more than it is usually given credit for. A girls trip at a destination worth traveling to produces photographs that last. The group at the pool, the boat, the beach at the right time of day: these are the images that circulate, that get framed, that appear in group chats years later as evidence of a trip that was done correctly. What you wear in them is a decision. It should be made like one.
The swimwear decision
Individual, not uniform
The girls trip is not the bachelorette trip. There is no occasion to dress around, no single woman who needs to be visually distinct from the group. What the photographs need instead is a group that looks like they made individual choices that happen to hold together. That is a harder thing to achieve than matching, and it produces better images when it works.
The way it works: a single silhouette in different colorways. The shape is consistent across the group, which is what creates the visual coherence. The color is individual, which is what allows each woman to read as herself. The group looks composed. Nobody looks costumed.
Why the silhouette is the decision
Color is personal and relatively easy to get right. Silhouette is structural and much harder to recover from if it goes wrong. A group of women in five different silhouettes, regardless of how well chosen each individual piece might be, does not photograph as a group. A group of women in one silhouette in five colors photographs as something that was considered.
The one-piece is the silhouette that holds together most consistently across a range of body types and preferences precisely because its proportions are resolved in a single piece of design. There is no negotiation between a top and a bottom. There is a suit, and either it works or it does not. For a group, this consistency is an asset. The photographs reflect it.
Whatever the occasion or the absence of one, the swimwear was not an afterthought.
Five colorways.
The Sandra Monokini exists in five destination-inspired colorways. For a girls trip of up to five women, the selection is already made: one silhouette, five distinct colorways, each one specific enough to reflect an individual choice and cohesive enough to hold together as a group.
Cape Coast
A shimmering bronze named for the coastal city in Ghana. It photographs warmly against dark water, sand, and stone. The woman who wears Cape Coast is not chasing a trend. She found this colorway because it is specific in a way that generic bronze swimwear is not, and specificity is what she looks for.
Santorini
The white of the Cyclades: clean, architectural, dazzling in direct sun. For the woman in the group who wears white with the confidence that most people cannot quite pull off, Santorini is the answer. It reads as the most formally considered colorway in the collection and pairs with everything the trip requires, from the boat to the terrace to the walk back through whatever town you have chosen.
St. Barts
Fuchsia wet-look, high-sheen by design. The boldest statement in the collection and the one that reads furthest across a pool, a beach, a photograph taken from any distance. The woman who wears St. Barts is not subtle about it. She does not need to be.
Bahia
Warm golden tropical print, named for the Brazilian state where the culture is as saturated as its light. An original print designed for Chéri House. For the woman who reaches for print before solid, who wants her swimwear to carry something beyond color, Bahia is the colorway with the most to say.
Tahiti
Multi-color tropical print, lush and unapologetic. Named for an island of extraordinary natural abundance, and the print reflects it. For the woman who has never met a pattern she considered too much, Tahiti is the suit that was designed for her specifically.
One silhouette. Five colorways. Each one specific enough to be a choice. Cohesive enough to be a group.
The destinations
Central America
Tulum remains the entry point for most women traveling this region, and for good reason: the cenotes, the Caribbean water, the jungle backdrop for photographs that do not look like anyone else's. But Central America rewards the group willing to go further. Belize offers the second largest barrier reef in the world, Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye providing the kind of unhurried beach culture that the more traveled Caribbean islands have largely lost. For the group that wants culture alongside the water, Antigua Guatemala, a UNESCO World Heritage colonial city of considerable beauty, pairs naturally with the Pacific coast beach towns of El Paredon, where black sand beaches and world-class surf break against a backdrop that most travelers have not yet discovered. The St. Barts fuchsia against the turquoise of a Belizean reef reads as a strong image. The Bahia print against the colonial architecture of Antigua reads as a different kind of one entirely.
The Caribbean
Turks and Caicos, Anguilla, Saint Lucia, Barbados: the Caribbean offers a range of registers from the ultra-private to the genuinely social, and the right island depends entirely on what the group is there to do. For water clarity, Turks and Caicos has no serious competition in the Atlantic. For the combination of beach and culture, Barbados does more in a square mile than most destinations manage across an entire coastline. For the woman in the group who organized everything, the Caribbean is the destination that rewards the effort of getting the details right.
The Mediterranean
Greece, Croatia, the Amalfi Coast, Ibiza: the Mediterranean summer is a specific experience that other destinations approximate but do not replicate. The light in July and August, the particular quality of the water, the civilization that has been built around the act of being outside near the sea for several thousand years: it produces a setting for a girls trip that earns its own category. The Santorini colorway was designed for exactly this light. The Cape Coast bronze works against the white stone of the Greek islands in a way that is difficult to achieve with any other color.
Brazil
For the group willing to travel further for a destination that most of their peers have not yet reached, Brazil offers an extraordinary range within a single country. The beaches of Bahia, the extraordinary isolation of Fernando de Noronha, the dunes of Jericoacoara: Brazil at this level of the itinerary is a trip that requires planning and rewards it. The Bahia colorway was drawn from the light and earth tones of the Brazilian northeast. Wearing it there is not incidental. It is the point.
The Sandra Monokini
The Sandra is a deep-V one-piece with an embellished lace bust closure and a high-leg Brazilian cut. The back is a cheeky scrunch cut. Three adjustable ties, at the neck and at two points on the back, allow each woman in the group to calibrate her fit independently without changing the silhouette. The hardware is custom-engraved and 24K gold-dipped, resistant to seawater and chlorine. The fabric is Xtra Life Lycra with black lining for coverage while wet.
It retails at $195. It is made in Brazil by a women-owned factory and designed in New York. It comes in five colorways: Cape Coast, Santorini, St. Barts, Bahia, and Tahiti.
For the group that wants to coordinate, each woman chooses her own colorway from the five and the silhouette holds the group together. For a larger group, colorways repeat without issue: two women in Cape Coast and two in Santorini photograph as a composed group as readily as five women in five different colors. The silhouette is the consistent element. The colorway is the personal one. Both decisions are available within the same suit.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should you wear on a girls trip?
Swimwear that reads as individually chosen but holds together as a group. The most effective approach is a single silhouette in different colorways: the shape creates visual coherence across the group, the color allows each woman to make her own choice. A one-piece with a consistent silhouette photographs more cohesively than a mix of bikinis and one-pieces in unrelated styles. The Sandra Monokini in five destination-inspired colorways was designed for exactly this situation.
How do you coordinate swimwear for a girls trip?
Choose the silhouette first, then let each woman choose her own colorway within it. A single silhouette in multiple colors produces photographs that look composed without looking costumed. The Sandra Monokini's five colorways, Cape Coast, Santorini, St. Barts, Bahia, and Tahiti, cover a wide range of individual preferences within a single consistent shape. For groups larger than five, colorways repeat without issue. Two women in St. Barts fuchsia and two in Santorini white photograph as a cohesive group as readily as five women in five different colors.
What are the best girls trip destinations for swimwear?
Tulum, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and Brazil offer the most photographically compelling settings for swimwear. Turks and Caicos has the clearest water in the Atlantic. The Greek islands offer a light and architectural setting that no other destination replicates. Brazil's northeast coast, particularly Fernando de Noronha and the Bahian coastline, rewards the effort of getting there with a level of natural beauty that more accessible destinations cannot match.
What is the best one-piece swimsuit for a girls trip?
Look for a suit with adjustable ties, which allows each woman in the group to calibrate her own fit within the same silhouette. A deep-V neckline and high-leg cut provide the most consistently flattering proportions across a range of body types. Xtra Life Lycra holds its shape and color through multiple days of pool and ocean use without fading or stretching out. The Sandra Monokini meets all three criteria and is available in five colorways designed to work together as a group.
Should a girls trip group wear matching swimwear?
Matching in the same colorway creates a strong visual statement and photographs as an intentional group moment. Coordinated, meaning the same silhouette in different colorways, creates individual legibility within group coherence. Both work. The Sandra Monokini supports both approaches: the whole group in one colorway for a clean matching moment, or each woman in her own colorway for a composed but individual result. The choice depends on what the group wants the photographs to say.
cherihouse.com | @cherihouseswim | House Magazine | 2026