Madonna and Kate Middleton have already bought: the Israeli connection of the celeb children

What do the children of Madonna, Sacha Baron Cohen, David Beckham, Simon Cowell and Kate Middleton have in common?

All of them are wearing swimsuits that were born on the edge of a hotel pool in Israel.

The Cinderella story of Emily Cohen-Schwartz and Sabrina Nagar amazed even the female entrepreneurs.

Cohen-Schwartz: "The palace likes our designs"

Dr. Maya Gaz

11/08/2022

Thursday, August 11, 2022, 12:34 Updated: Saturday, August 13, 2022, 08:44

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Emily Cohen Schwartz (left) and Sabrina Nagar.

A crazy success story that began by the pool at the Dan Acadia Hotel (Photo: Claire Nathan photography)

The children of

, the singer

,

, not to mention the children of

and the children

, all of these were photographed every summer with their famous parents at resorts Luxurious when dressed in SUNUVA swimwear.

These children were the regular customers of the swimwear and beachwear for babies, toddlers and children of Emily Cohen-Schwartz, a strictly kosher Jew, who has considerable mileage in Israel.

Cohen-Schwartz, together with her partner, Sabrina Nagar, founded the luxury brand SUNUVA (a combination of sun and UVA in English) after the two met 15 years ago by the pool, during the summer vacation at the Dan Acadia Hotel in Herzliya.

Their children, who went to the same Jewish nursery school in London, recognized each other and the mothers began to complain that there were no nice swimwear for the children.

On the edge of that pool, their unique brand was born, which in those days catered to rich and chic mothers who wanted to dress their children in beautiful swimwear that also protected them from the harmful rays of the sun.

SUNUVA swimwear (Photo: Claire Nathan photography)

Act in five prints

"We started with a very thorough and very long research. We talked about the idea," explains Cohen-Schwartz.

"We researched the UV concept and within four months of examining the market we saw that there is not a single brand that offers beautiful, well-designed swimwear that protects from UV (SUNUVA has been approved by the British Skin Foundation and received the official seal as a manufacturer of sun-protective swimwear, from "third).

We decided to offer it to the market." The

two bought fabrics from one of the best Italian swimwear companies, the one that sells to Dolce & Gabbana and Ralph Lauren. "We explained to them that the fabric must breathe, protect from UV and dry quickly.

We showed them the models we had designed but they had never seen anything like this in real life.

For each of our designs we took a different fabric that met the needs.

We made a tiny collection of five prints, the smallest amount the factory allowed."

A few days later, with the help of a connected company and a lot of luck, the two realized that they had a ticking bomb in their hand.

"A friend hosted a small party for us. We thought 20 people would come but 200 turned up. We made £10,000 in two hours. It was all mums from north-west London, from Notting Hill, Belsize Park, lots of Israelis. We were shocked. That's when you realize you've done something That's right. One of them was owned by Harrods. The next day Harrods called and a week later we already sold with them."

For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the British shopping hierarchy, we will clarify here that the Harrods department store is considered the most prestigious throughout the United Kingdom, so much so that there are Britons who usually purchase the cheapest item there, just so that they have a branded bag in which to store shopping from a cheaper store...

Until the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, the two had a full collection in more than 300 points of sale in the world, among others in Harrods, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Bernie's.

They sold in Australia, Japan and the United States: New York, Los Angeles and Dallas, in shopping centers such as Bloomingdale's, and Kitson in Los Angeles.

In all the major resorts, among others Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, one and only, sandy lane in Barbados, the Maldives, Mexico, and on Carpenter Island owned by Richard Branson.

Until before the epidemic, a third of their businesses were located in resorts.

The person who advised them was Peter Kenyon, former chairman of the Chelsea and Manchester United football teams, who previously also served in the sports fashion company "Umbro", and with his encouragement they raised three million pounds for the purpose of expanding the business several years ago. The two met him after seeing Three children are running around a pool, dressed in their bathing suits, and it turns out that they are his children.

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Kate Middleton.

When one of the women with the best taste in the world buys your brand for her children, there is no celeb who wouldn't want one too (Photo: GettyImages, Max Mumby/Indigo)

Then came the corona virus

Now Cohen-Schwartz says that the corona virus almost destroyed their business.

To be sure, things today look completely different behind the scenes, although from a business point of view everything is back on track.

"The Corona period was a real disaster for us and thank God in the last year and a half we are getting back to business," explains Cohen-Schwartz.

"Due to Corona, we stopped trading and were badly hurt. The Corona broke out in March while we receive all our goods in March. The world closed in on itself and we found ourselves with goods worth 2 million pounds."

"We were sure we were closing the business. We actually closed the business for five months. At the time it felt like the biggest nightmare. I couldn't see a meter ahead. For five months we stopped and then we moved on, forward."

"We had a large office in London and 25 employees. Today we no longer have offices and have gone from 25 employees to five employees who work from home. We focus on online, work with Harrods, Selfridges, no longer deal with independent boutiques but only with large budgets and now it's back Be good, but be tough from a business perspective.

If you had told me two and a half years ago that someone from Manchester wanted to work for us from home, I wouldn't have even met with her. Today we have five employees and only two of them live in London and I see that it doesn't matter."

"For me, the corona virus was an understanding of a new way of working in life and in the world. I discovered that working from home is much more efficient, all meetings are gone, all the time spent leaving and coming home is gone, Zoom allows for faster and shorter meetings. It was a life-changing change for the business, but the way we work Today is something I would hold on to and not let go. A small team that works remotely is wonderful."

"We changed the way the collections are designed. They are tighter and smaller. We invest in every style we design and believe in it 100% more than designing dozens of items with the same motif."

For them, the biggest difficulty in Corona was the Indian factory where they have been producing for 15 years since the establishment of the brand.

"We were so big that we became their only customer. Today we work with the same suppliers and the same factories that we had relationships with since we started, and if it weren't for these wonderful relationships we wouldn't be able to do what we did."

"True. But being in luxury high-end swimwear and beachwear for children is a difficult place because no one traveled, no one bought swimwear, everyone locked themselves in their homes. I'm proud of us because we got through this period without debts, without loans from the bank. Everything is very It's clean and it's good to be in such a place that's also profitable. It's been a struggle for us for years, but without debt it's a wonderful place to be after Corona."

Meet the Beckhams.

The young people in the group have already had time to get to know the SUNUVA swimwear up close (photo: screenshot, official Instagram)

The shirt that Kate Middleton wore for the little prince

These days they design the collection themselves again, produce again, shoot again, work again with the royal family.

Their romance with Kate Middleton began after she dressed Prince George in his third birthday photos, in a striped economy shirt with a matching navy blue pocket that the two made and sold on their website (www.sunuva.com) for nine pounds.

The shirt sold out in seconds.

"The palace likes our designs," says Cohen-Schwartz.

"Kate is a mother of three children and we work with her as well as with Simon Cowell, whose eight-year-old son is a big client of ours, Victoria's Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, Mark Wahlberg. It's wonderful to come back and as our children get older, because We are no longer talking about 2-year-old toddlers but 17-year-old teenagers, our style is growing up. We are still designers for children and babies, but the category that has grown is for young people and youth.

The mothers want them to wear age appropriate clothes but young youth has a very strict style in this period.

Just before they enter Topshop and Urban Outfitters, we manage to catch them in this fragile and interesting place."

"

We market in Israel and are very, very enthusiastic and love the Israeli audience.

We started working with an Israeli company GLOBAL E that makes deliveries in the world.

With Brexit it is very difficult to ship products outside England and they simplify the matter of customs and deliveries, especially for the Israeli audience."

Sabrina and Emily.

If it weren't for the Israeli sun (well, well - a little bit of luck too), none of this would have happened (photo: Claire Nathan photography)

• Of money

Tags

• madonna

• Kate Middleton

• Sasha Baron Cohen

• David Beckham

• Swimwear

• Children