Beachwear Is Booming During Swim Week Miami

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The biggest, brightest and boldest in swim wear lines are about to hit the shores of South Beach.

Swim Week Miami kicked off Wednesday with the Peroni Annual Sneak Peek at the STK Miami. High fashion runway shows and a trade show at the Miami Beach Convention Center run through the Tuesday July, 21st.

"That's the major trade show that brings all of the retailers and manufactures together and that's where the business is conducted so that you, as a consumer, can go into store and purchase the swimwear," said Judy Stein, the Executive Director of the Swim Wear Association.

This is the trade show's 33rd year and will feature 2,500 lines for buyers to consider. As CBS4's Lisa Petrillo found out, the beach wear business is booming.

"So let's talk about the business of swim and what sort of numbers it brings in," asked Petrillo.

"We're talking about 13.2 billion. It's a huge industry. It seems small but it's huge," said Stein.

"That's in a year," asked Petrillo.

"Yeah, annually,"

This year for the first time IMG Fashion, which owns the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim, canceled their main Swim Week events normally held at the Raleigh Hotel. But the shows will go on at more than 12 venues on the beach.

"Swim Week is a multitude of events going on, of course we have the trade event at the convention center and a variety of events going on," said Rolando Aedo with the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We are fully promoting all events around fashion week this year and look forward to working with IMG when they come back to town next year."

The 2016 resort collections should be in stores from October through December. The trends this year run the gamut from nautical to fringe to laser cut outs. Metallics are also trending, as is neoprene and cover ups that go from day to night.

Click Here for more information on the Swim Week schedule and events.