Planting even a single tree can provide multiple benefits to earth and the more, the better. Trees planted by Maaji’s Planting an Ocean of Trees campaign are specifically placed in the Andean region of Colombia, the brand’s native country. This chosen area will protect watersheds that have been hit by violence and affected by the indiscriminate logging of forests. Located in the equatorial zone, this region will allow further growth of trees with potential high water and provide a greater contribution to the fight against climate change. In conjunction with regional environmental authorities, Maaji has chosen to plant the tree species of Cedar, Willow, Oak, and Myrtle. “Plantings will continuously be verified by the multinational Deloitte & Touche.”

Planting trees also provides a social impact among the inhabitants of the region and the world. These tree plantings bring additional resources to family farmers and improve their quality of life by protecting their drinking water. Additional Green Solutions implemented with this campaign include soil recovery and topsoil protection, improving soil porosity, promoting species to create native habitats, spreading tree species to fight against the danger of extinction, and reconnecting forest patches to build travel corridors for wildlife.

“As inhabitants of this wonderful world, we feel it is our responsibility to find different ways of contributing to the environment from the moment we wake up in the morning until we go to bed. Each one of us can be an agent of change.” –Maaji

What are your contributions to the planet? Purchase a swimsuit from Maaji’s Underwater Conquest collection and contribute to an eco-friendly campaign to protect our earth and its inhabitants.

Anything that was a free sample. Yes, we said it… and it’s true. Believe it or not some people actually give samples they’ve received for free throughout the year as a Christmas gift come December. Talk about tacky, impersonal, and cheap. A home-made card or handwritten, well-thought note is much better.

Large amounts of souvenirs. Souvenirs are great gifts for friends and family when you return from a trip, or if the person loves a particular location, or if it’s a joke gift…but for Christmas try to avoid gifting outrageously unnecessary or large amounts of souvenirs. We’d prefer a postcard that doesn’t take up space and collect dust in the corner of our closet.

Re-gifting to the same person. If I purchased a well-thought out gift for you, please don’t re-gift it back to me, especially if it’s still wrapped in the same way I gave it to you or even worse…personalized! If you’re going to be brave and re-gift, be careful you don’t re-gift to anyone who knows the original sender.

Gifts that “hint” to something personal. This category includes deodorant, self-help books, subscriptions to dating websites, or hair removal products. Unless this is a joke gift, just don’t give it! Why embarrass someone in this way? If you think they have a problem and/or need some help, offer some advice…not a gift.

If you’ve received some of these bad gifts and you’re super bummed about it…never fear! The days following Christmas are the perfect time for you to buy yourself something you’ve been wanting but perhaps were waiting to see if you received it as a gift. Didn’t receive that Agua Bendita you’ve been drooling over…even after you’ve had it as your desktop on your computer for half of the month of December? No worries, buy it for yourself now! Or maybe someone gifted you a fabulous vacation to the Caribbean…you know what you’ll need: a little bit of lovely L*Space swimwear to accompany you.

It may be a bit obvious, but here at The Orchid Boutique we’re just plain thankful for bikinis. Can you imagine life without these gracious two piece swimsuits? Without the bikini, the monokini might not have evolved. Without the bikini, we’d never get a chance to envy some celebrity abs. And most importantly, without bikinis we wouldn’t be able to make quite the same fashion statement at the pool, and let’s face it, that’s what life is really about!

So we’re taking a little trip down memory lane and giving a short and sweet history lesson on the bikini. (Don’t worry, there will not be a quiz after… just enjoy!)

Historians believe the idea for the bikini began as early as 1400 B.C. from Greek culture for athletic purposes. Images are painted on walls and urns from that period.  Swimsuits began as layered pieces that even included weights so women could ensure their attire stayed put and didn’t reveal their legs.

Eventually, a slim form-fitting single layered bathing garment was introduced. Australian swimmer and performer Annette Kellerman was arrested for wearing such attire in Boston.  The Bikini was born in Paris on July 5, 1946 by French engineer Louis Réard and fashion designer Jacques Heim. The bikini was named after the Bikini Atoll, an island in the South Pacific where atomic bombs were being tested at the time. The first bikini, which was a string bikini, was modeled by danced Micheline Bernardini.

Bikini’s from the 1940’s dared to show midriff’s and exposed more skin than before. Retro and Pin-up inspired styles are a popular trend now and are reminiscent of this time stage in the bikini’s life.

In 1951 the bikini was actually banned from beauty pageants and deemed sinful by the Vatican.  The first swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated was published in 1964 and featured a bikini on the cover.

We hope you found some interesting facts out of this lesson and we hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends!  Gobble, gobble!

The Orchid Boutique is located at the Latitude Building in Brickell, on the 21st floor

Looking for swimwear in miami? Even though we’re primarily an online boutique that serves customers world wide, we moved our swimwear boutique to Miami and welcome local customers (or fashionistas on vacation) who’d like to try stuff on. Our Brickell offices, located in the heart of Miami’s financial district offer a convenient metro accessible location that also comes with valet and street parking.

If you’d like to visit our boutique, simply give us a call at 1-877-288-9564 and we’ll be glad to assist you in scheduling an appointment to come by our location. We ship to shoppers world wide, but serve you locally as well.

Initially based out of Washington, DC, we decided to relocate our headquarters to Miami to better serve you. See below:

Perks TO MOVING TO MIAMI:

- Miami Fashion week will be in our backyard (so we can get you the hottest fashion trends before anyone else)!

- We can be a hub for tourists and local beachgoers who need a designer swimsuit at exclusive prices, by appointment

- We will be closer to major partner manufacturers to speed up backorder time, in case bestsellers sell out

If you are looking for a stylish and exclusive selection of luxury swimwear, you’ve come to the right place. Visit our site at www.TheOrchidBoutique.com

This move has been years in the making! Our offices & shipping department will be located in the financial district’s Brickell area, labeled by many as the “fashionable wall street” of the south. We’re proud to continue offering luxury swimsuits to fashionistas all over the world, we’ll just now be based locally in a swimwear hot spot to better serve you!

We wanted to also alert you of some minor changes happening in the coming days. Our move is scheduled to take place on Thursday and Friday 8/19-8/20 of next week. Due to the major undertaking of the process, no shipments will be dispatched during these two business days. The good news is, our shipping dept will remain open until 8pm on Wednesday 8/18! If you’re thinking of rocking a new suit from the swimsuit sale, make sure to order by this time so that it ships asap. Orders placed on 8/19 and 8/20 will ship on Monday, 8/23.

If you’re considering returning your recent order for an exchange or refund, keep in mind we will be receiving returns in our VA processing center until August 18th. If you think you’re return won’t get to us by 8/18, please ship it to our new address in Miami. Visit our Return Policy for further details.

Take advantage of the new designers that are now on sale! Next year is going to be amazing, so we are clearing our shelves for what’s to come. If you’re going to be in the Miami area, we hope to see you there!

Product Trends Tab

The trends are located on the left hand side on any page of our website. We tagged all of our swimwear into at least one, but often up to five or six, of these 31 categories allowing you to find swimsuits that incorporate a certain trend you’re interested in. On every product page, just below the item description, there is a collection of tabs. One of these tabs is a “Product Trends” tab, so you can see what trends a swimsuit incorporates. You can also add your own tags!

Sassy Sienna by OndadeMar Vintage, a great example of Convertible Swimwear

One of our new trends is Convertible Swimsuits. Convertible swimsuits means the suit converts into many different styles. For example, the Sassy Sienna by OndadeMar Vintage can be worn as a v-neck, a halter, or a bandeau top.

Another one of our great new trends is Ruffles, which we recently introduced by showing you how to get Katy Perry’s look. Ruffled swimwear is playful and adds visual interest to any suit.

A great trend to get bang for your buck from is our Reversible Swimsuit trend. This means that you’re swimsuit has reversible fabric and can be worn on either side. A great example of reversible swimwear is any swimsuit by Maaji Swimwear as all of their suits are reversible!

By sorting our swimsuits by trend we hope we have made our large selection seem smaller so you can spend less time stressing over swimwear and more time poolside.

Click to view our Clearance SALE

Ahhh, Mondays. The day when your swimsuits are hung up to dry and your beach towels folded away – we feel your pain. Although we can’t magically flip the calendar to the weekend, we can tell you all about the updated swimwear clearance section on our new website. Hopefully a little retail therapy for the swimsuit fashionista goes a long way to cure a case of the Mondays.

Layered Navigation

Everyone loves a good sale, BUT finding the right item can be daunting. Our new Clearance section is equipped with layered navigation allowing you to narrow down your search and find the perfect suit – faster!

A FEW TIPS: Sorting by price allows you to chose the price range that best fits your budget, and next to each price range it displays how many swimsuits are for sale within that range. Looking for something from $0-$100? No problem! Sorting by brand allows you to see the best deals we have within each designer. If you’re less sure about what brand you’re interested in, sorting by size allows you to narrow down the search for a size that will fit you. If you’re interested in a certain look, you can sort by style, such as Brazilian Cut bikinis or Full Coverage bottoms, or trend, such as swimsuit halter tops or bandeau tops, allowing you to find what you want on sale quickly.

Layered Navigtion in Action

The cool thing about this layered navigation is you can funnel through options and find the best deal. If you click on a category you’re interested in, say Skirted Bottoms, then you can select a price, and then click on size Large to view only skirted bottoms within that price and available in that size. You can continue selecting remaining categories until the perfect swimsuit for your qualifications is sorted. If at any point you want to widen your search again, you simply “X” out of the category you no longer are interested in.

Shopping our swimsuit sale just got a whole lot easier, maybe not as easy as lounging by the pool, but definitely easy enough to take away the case of the Mondays.

Zanzibar String Bikini by OndadeMar

In the past year, we gave up vacations in Santorini and Ibizia for the Santorini String and the Ibizia Bandeau. We did without sailing trips for the Ana Sailor Bikini. And we sacrificed tanning for our fluorescent office lights. And we would do it all again because it allowed us to create a better website to ensure that you, our loyal Orchid Boutique customer, has the best shopping experience so that you can easily purchase the perfect swimsuit for your needs. Over the next few days on our blog, we’re going to be giving you an exclusive tour the new features of our website – so keep your tray tables in upright position and prepare for takeoff.

New 'AddThis' Widget

A great way to get the word out about a swimsuit you love or one you think your friend might love is with our new ‘AddThis’ widget. It gives customers a myriad of easy ways to share a product such as posting it to your Facebook, tweeting about it on Twitter, bookmarking it, printing it, among others. It can be found right next to the “Add set to cart” fuchsia button on any item in our store.

A second feature we’re proud to introduce is the “Designer Info” and “Style & Fit” tabs on each product page. The Designer Info tab allows you to learn more about the designer of the swimsuit you’re interested in, such as what they are known for and the country of origin. The Style and Fit tab informs you about the sizing of each item, including notes from our fashion specialists, to help you ensure you’re ordering the size that’s right for you.

Our new Designer Info and Style & Fit tabs

If you need fashion advice from a specialist who has seen or tried on the product you like, you can click on the “Email Our Fashion Advisers” hyperlink on any product page, and an automated email that includes the product name and reference ID will appear in your default email browser, allowing easy, one-click access to our fashion specialists.

We can’t wait to tell you more about all of our new features, but in the meantime, we welcome you to shop around check it out for yourself: http://www.theorchidboutique.com/!

But sometimes a celebrity like Halle Berry comes around, and chooses to name her fragrance Pure Orchid, and that’s when we think to ourselves, we DIG that. Totally with our train of thought. After all, we did name our online store The Orchid Boutique.

Exotic Puntas Argeratum by Maaji

Orchids are exotic flowers with usually vibrant, vivid colors. They are exclusively able to grow only under specific temperatures, with all the elements being just right for them to bloom. They are wild delicate plants, but also quite bold in their representation of color. Orchids are distinct. Their characteristics are our inspiration for naming this boutique. Our goal is to offer a unique source for designer swimwear that is exclusive and exotic. Apparently just like Halle, we name our essence after a striking organism. Not only cool to emulate its characteristics, but also to smell like one.

We’ve already recommended our bikini pick for you Halle, so we are A-Ok with you smelling like an Orchid. Would complement your look!

Get the Exotic Puntas Argeratum bikini here.