Audrina Patridge certainly matured from reality TV time in the limelight, to quintessential globetrotter, entrepreneur, mother and wife. Years after MTV’s, The Hills (2006-2010), VH1’s Audrina (2011), and NBC’s The Look (2013-2016), she’s busy as ever, smarter than ever, and hotter than ever!
A newlywed with a seven-month-old baby and a brand new business, Audrina seems to balance her life, success, and family effortlessly. But admits, “It’s a lot harder than it looks! It may seem like I have it all together, but it’s a challenge.” She says the key is staying organized, “Once you have a baby and a job, you can’t be as spontaneous, and have to lead a much more scheduled life.” If that means skipping the last minute weekend getaway, it certainly paid off. Her new swimwear line, Prey Swim, is absolute perfection.
Growing up in Southern California, Audrina spent most of her time near the water and always had a passion for swimwear, but could never find the perfect bathing suit. She of course had her staples and seasonal favorites, but there was always something she wanted to change. Fed up with other swimsuit designs and fit, she finally decided to do something about it. “I’m just going to make my own perfect swimwear!” She even declined offers to endorse other bathing suit brands, as she was determined to make her own masterpiece. An amalgam of this epiphany, strong willpower, and drive, lead to the launch of her first collection in November 2016.
The final product is stylish, practical pieces that stay in place even when you’re not simply sitting in the sand. “We want our ‘girl’ to feel confident and sexy, but also be comfortable and covered for any adventure that she engages in while wearing Prey.” The ‘Duck Dive Bottoms’ exemplify this concept. They’re an adorable statement piece with suspender-style straps that serve a purpose: they keep your bottoms in place even when ducking under a wave, (which lifts your confidence and lifts your bottom nicely). The line is an expression of Audrina’s wanderlust spirit, time spent in exotic locations combined with her Southern California roots. Prey Swim seamlessly blends her passions of globetrotting, surf, and eclectic feminine style into a fresh, versatile swim collection. Audrina explains the ideal ‘Prey Swim girl’ is, “a trend-starter, not a follower. She’s adventurous and absorbs something from each culture,” she says, “I also want her feel confident and whatever she wears, the ‘Prey Swim girl’ makes it her own.”
“We want our ‘girl’ to feel confident and sexy, but also be comfortable and covered for any adventure”
Audrina’s creativity and innate fashion savvy are reflected in the success of her line. From design to fabric selection to production, she is devoted to delivering the perfect suit. “I’m hands on with everything related to Prey Swim.” But she humbly admits, “There are really challenging elements of owning your own business, but I like a challenge, and I’ve learned so much just within the past year.” Each season, Audrina will take the Prey Swim girl to another exotic and sexy location through the designs, imagery, and silhouettes. “Prey Swim embodies the girl collecting stamps on her passport with uninhibited desires. The swim shapes and styles we created perfectly show off the feminine form, while offering edge through details such as metal hardware accents, fringe, tassels, mesh, cinching, and even shark tooth charms!” The line was also designed with both function and seamless construction in mind, to offer women smooth, attractive lines, to protect the beautiful female shape. Not only a passion project, Prey Swim has become a family affair with Audrina’s two sisters, Casey Loza and Samantha Patridge, who play intricate roles in the business. “We literally grew up in our bathing suits, always at the beach, lake, or pool together, so it was a natural fit to have them involved with Prey Swim.” They even came up with the brand name together, to which Audrina confesses, “It was the hardest part! But we all share a love for the ocean and sharks, and realized the word, prey, was a perfect fit.” But it’s more than just a cool name to them. Audrina wanted to bring awareness to sharks, whose role reversed from predator to prey resulting from harmful human activity like shark finning and ocean fishing. “As we continue to roll out Prey Swim collections and build the brand, we will also be working on efforts to help protect them.”
“Sharks are gorgeous creatures; strong, capable, beautiful and empowering, which is my vision for our ‘Prey Swim’ girl.”
Audrina’s introducing the summer collection in the beginning of June, which is inspired by 70’s style south of France, and she debuted one of the new summer tops in our photoshoot, “I got the summer samples a day before the shoot, and I even tweaked it a little more!” She’s thrilled with the new designs, and currently working on a ‘Resort Wear’ line which will premiere at Miami Swim Week in July.
Although Audrina’s schedule seems jam-packed, she somehow managed time to come up with her own jewelry line called, Theia by Audrina (available at www.stilnest.com/audrinapatridge.com). Made in Germany, the line currently includes six delicate, dainty pieces designed for layering and “the quality is amazing,” Audrina says, “Kirra pulls on them all day long and haven’t broken once!”
Audrina really seems to have it all together; she’s a strong minded businesswoman, loving wife, and mother. Perhaps a more mature version of herself from her time on Reality TV Show, The Hills. She filmed from ages 19 to 26 and reveals, “Those are the most crucial years of [a young person’s] life, and having to experience them on TV, where you’re getting picked apart and judged, was definitely hard. You can easily get sucked into Hollywood and forget your morals and values.” But it was the support system of her family that helped her to stay grounded throughout that time, “if they didn’t hear from me in a week, they’d come knocking on my door and make me come home for a few days.” She warns young women against the allure of Hollywood, “It’s not always about parties, glitz and glamour. If you don’t have thick skin, you’re not going to make it.”
She still keeps in touch with Heidi Montag, Whitney Port, and Kristin Cavallari from The Hills, but revealed she talks to Heidi the most and has given her a lot of pregnancy advice. Coincidentally enough, Heidi, Whitney, and Lauren are all pregnant at the same time. Perhaps a reunion show, when they’re all new mothers? Audrina says she’s not opposed to the idea, “It could be interesting! We would finally all have something in common, whereas before it was all just catfighting over boys and going out to clubs. Now we would genuinely actually have something we could relate to each other about.” Fingers crossed for a reunion season, but for now, it seems Audrina has enough on her plate.
