Bathing is one of the few daily rituals in which we are truly allowed the space and respite to be alone with ourselves; mentally, physically and spiritually.
It's a time of pensive reflection; of meditative presence with our own physical form. It's a ritual we all partake in, and one that has been honoured throughout time and culture as a means of cleansing and of restoration.
For the Antipodean curated towelling brand BAINA, their design ethos has always been centred around an elevated, timeless and traceable approach to contemporary bathing rituals. Devising a range of organic cotton towels that sit within those principles, each towel in their repertoire is an objet d'art that explores texture and colour through a series of designs that subtly nod to influences of fine art, sculpture, architecture and colour theory.
Pairing with their physical offerings, BAINA has also embarked on a new visual series entitled SUBMERGE, which explores "the ritual of outdoor bathing - embracing restorative bodies of water where we envelop ourselves in nature, slow down, and connect inward". On the cusp of another coastal Australian summer, it feels like an apt memento of one of the season's most ceremonial observances.
For the second volume of the SUBMERGE series, the brand looks to the ceremony of swimming in tranquil tidal rock pools. Capturing the ethereal beauty of model Mia Dennis, and documented by the considered eye of photographer Lisa Sorgini, we are transported to a bucolic reverie where skin and soul are bared with abandon.
We see Dennis, a vision of cherubic energy, on the coastline of New South Wales, apricating both partially and fully submerged in the cool and salty waters of a rock pool. Dennis is swathed in a series of BAINA's most iconic towel designs – their checked Roman pool towels – surrendering to her idyllic surrounds, letting the exchange between water and skin engulf her.
You can explore the full SUBMERGE: VOLUME 02 visual series and their latest towel collections now, on the BAINA website.
