Suit Your Style?


Protective lycra suits are functional not fashionable. Well, they were until Swedish retail clothing giant H&M released their latest Summer swimwear range.

This swimsuit (pictured) is obviously not designed with jellyfish protection in mind - nor for anyone with less than a bird-like figure it seems - but it demonstrates that suits of this nature (UV or boxie) can be stylish as well as protective.

Children and teenagers account for a high number of box jellyfish victims due possibly to this group's rapid movement in the water which does not allow time for the animal to move away. Running into the shallow water, diving and jumping around all expose the more exuberant water user to a feeding animal's out-stretched tentacles.

Parents!! The H&M suit would look great on kids and teenage girls.

Box jellyfish don't discern colour so the splash of garish hues of the H&M suit won't frighten them away - although some of the suits doing the rounds in Australia's tropical north (pictured below) may very well achieve just that! Wow, they look really, really bad. Thankfully, there is choice in the stinger suit market, so you can find something less embarrassing. 


While the coverage of the H&M suit is inadequate leaving impossibly long Photoshopped legs exposed when they are the most likely body part to be stung - the cut around the hip looks great, if you can pull it off - the arms and torso get good protection and this is better than nothing. If leggings or stockings could be incorporated and attached/detached to the suit then we would have something very effective and very sharp.


Sadly at this stage for those concerned with fashion when in the water with dangerous jellyfish, if you don't fit H&M's new look you have little choice but to wear the classic full-body suit - have a look below folks, the reality is that they are quite OK and look more like SCUBA diving suits! Remember you need not parade around on the beach like this, just slip the suit on and off at the water's edge.


And while suit design has actually come a long way since the 1960s when Australian surf lifesavers wore nylon stockings, this offering from H&M at least shows that protective suits are in the mass market spotlight at last, there is a demand for wearing them, they can be cool and they are looking better and better.

Hopefully suits like that from H&M will be seen on beaches in Europe this Summer and become a more acceptable fashion item that finds its way to South-East Asia and Thailand - and of course Australia's tropical north as soon as humanly possible .. please!!

H&M's product link:


Blog Boxie or anyone associated with us has no connection to H&M or any other protective suit manufacturer, distributor, retailer, etc. We care about safety.



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