V Del Sol 2009

Growing up on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, Véronique de la Cruz couldn’t help but adopt twin passions for high fashion and the ideal beach ensemble. “The island has a real bathing suit culture,” she recalls. “When you go to the beach in a bathing suit, it’s as if you are going to a party. As a young girl, I spent my time saving money to buy swimsuits. I had to look fabulous when I went out. In Guadeloupe, it was a fashion faux pas to be seen wearing the same bathing suit twice. So my cousin and I saved money to buy different swimsuits and we would exchange and mix and match them so it would always seem that we had something new.” Even so, Véronique was never completely satisfied with the results. “I would always find something wrong with the suits and wanted to modify them to my taste, adding that special special something- that French flair”. The desire to find the perfect suit burned strong. Little did she know that more than a decade later her vie du soleil would become V DEL SOL. In 2006 her stunning swimwear launch collection was hailed as “The Next Big Thing!” “Ready to Make Waves” and “Absolument Innovants,” covered in magazines that included Vogue, Elle, Flare and Sports Ilustrated Swimsuit Edition.Véronique moved to Costa Rica with her business executive husband and their two young children. Entranced by that country’s gorgeous flora and fauna-which she captured in paintings-and encouraged by her husband, she decided to create her ideal bathing suit. “I wanted to show the beauty of Costa Rica through the eyes of a fashionista,” she says.