Season after season, Catherine Huss struggled to find the right swimsuit. Then, she decided to create her own — and started a new kind of swimwear company.
“I’ve always been interested in fashion and style, and yet my mom raised me to be very modest-focused,” Huss, the founder and designer of Siena and Co., shared with Our Sunday Visitor. “I haven’t been able to find the styles I’ve wanted, so I decided I have to design them!”
“We shouldn’t have to compromise on style, modesty-level or how our clothes are made,” she added. “Siena and Co. was started to provide clothing without the compromise.”
The 31-year-old in San Diego began her company in 2020. Today, women can browse through and purchase her swimsuits online, at siena-co.com. The website features models of all sizes wearing one and two-piece swimsuits that provide coverage and style.
A Catholic, Huss revealed how faith influences her work — even in Eucharistic adoration — and how her company focuses on the dignity of the human person.
“I always aim to keep this at the center of all I do with Siena and Co.: the dignity of the women wearing the designs, the dignity of the models and photographers, as well as the dignity of the people sewing the actual garments,” she stressed.
Huss drew inspiration from her education at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she studied Catholic studies, and St. Catherine University, also in St. Paul, where she studied apparel design.
All of her studies, she said, “focused on and pointed back to the dignity of the human person, and the social doctrine of the Church.”
Understanding modesty
She also found inspiration in adoration while working on her college “senior project” to design and sew a line of clothing.
“One day I was in adoration and new styles kept flooding my mind, and I pushed them away saying ‘No, no, I’m trying to pray!'” she recalled. “I remembered I heard a talk and the speaker advised if you have persistent thoughts in prayer to write them down, to get them out of your head.”
“Thankfully I did,” she said, “and those are some of my favorite designs to this day.”
Faith and education also played a role in the name of Huss’ company. She chose “Siena and Co.” after visiting Siena while studying abroad in Italy.
“I got to learn all about St. Catherine of Siena and how she used her gifts to build the kingdom,” she said. “I also got to know and encounter Italian women who live and breathe style and have effortless confidence, so most of the designs are inspired by Italian women.”
Huss has previously written about modesty and how the topic can be twisted to teach girls that their bodies are bad and need to be covered up, leading to an unhealthy view. She shared how women today can approach modesty in a healthy way.
“I like to define modesty as ‘revealing the proper amount in the proper context,'” she said. “You wouldn’t bare your entire body to anyone upon first meeting them, in the same way you wouldn’t bare all your deepest struggles, hopes and dreams immediately upon meeting them.”
She added: “Our bodies and souls are so beautiful and worthy, but not everyone deserves to encounter them fully in every context.”
While her first swimwear collection was funded by selling pre-orders through Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform, Huss said that her company is now considering private investors. For people interested in finding out more, they can email hello@siena-co.com.
