TA-BOU beachwear competence dal 1978

Nella benestante città di Zurigo in Svizzera, lontana dalle spiaggie e dal mare, hanno luogo numerevoli transazioni finanziarie ogni giorno.

Gianni De Nicola, però, aveva in mente un tipo di transazione particolare... lo scambio di soldi per sole; questo era nel 1976. Solo due anni dopo ebbe inizio la storia TA-BOU...

"Wear at your own risk" - a bikini is the last and possibly smallest garment a woman will wear in public... there is very little fabric to work with, which makes fit and quality of utmost importance. These are our highest criteria of manufacturing, and along with the expert advice available in our stores, you'll get exactly what you're looking for. We are not liable for excessive stares and maximum attraction.

"Wenn wenig viel bedeutet" (transl. "When little means a lot") is written on the 2009 posters. This slogan explains our sophisticated mission: to design and manufacture a comfortable and durable piece of clothing, made with very little material. This is the last item that a woman wears in public and is therefore of extreme importance.

"nicht mehr 16…" (transl. "no longer 16…")

With a strong reference to our famous 1994 campaign, this year's posters celebrate our 25-year-anniversary, with the same model as nine years before.

As we were looking for Sylvia (her name is now Syl), we "coincidentally" found out that she is in the exact same place were we had already planned our photoshooting. Sometimes coincidences happen, because they were meant to.

Nevertheless, the "Agency for Poster Approval" (indeed, such a thing really does exist!) rejects our posters and does not grant permission to hang them in the city of Zürich. For this reason we decided to publish two versions of the same poster. The first one, a cropped version of the original, that eventually got approved by the city, was hung on public billboards. The second one, the same original that got rejected by the city, was hung on privately owned billboards. This, once again, created a huge media storm.

"Kann frau… halbe Bikinis kaufen?" (transl. "Can women buy half bikinis?"): this was a new sensation, something no one else in the beachwear industry had done before. Indeed, at TA-BOU, one could now buy the tops and bottoms separately, matching these into numerous color and size combinations. The poster was with Alexandra, Don Johnson's girlfriend.

 

The 1994 campaign caused great turmoil all over the medias and in the entire nation. The slogan "16-jährig und tabu" (transl. "16 years old and taboo?") has an obvious ambiguity. Few people realized that we, TA-BOU, were celebrating our 16th anniversary, and that the slogan had nothing to do with a woman's age of consent. TA-BOU got sued six times for this campaign, but the final verdicts were all of not guilty, on all levels.

Modigliani drew "his" Venus based on the famous "Birth of Venus" by Botticelli. Coincidentally, Modligliani's Venus was hung right next to the "TA-BOU Venus", the poster with Maria Louisa, making their similarities very apparent. Is this also proof that "sex sells" was always true?

Ing-Marie, the cool blonde in the red bikini, helped TA-BOU gain recognition on a national level. TA-BOU has now a total of eight shops throughout Switzerland.

This special, waterproof rose made of Lycra fabric, that was attached to the bikini, was hand-made by an 80-year-old grandma and was sold over 2000 times!

Ingrid De Nicola-Haverkate ended her modeling career by posing one last time for TA-BOU. On this edition with the Slogan "TA-BOU, wer denn sonst?" (transl. "TA-BOU, who else?") In the meantime she completes her degree in Fashion Design in Milan. Ever since then each and every TA-BOU item has been her own exclusive design.

The Slogan "Wann kommen Sie vorbei?" (transl. "When will you come by?"), with Nina on the poster, teases potential customers. Nevertheless, it also induced certain businessmen to think about services that we do not provide!

Given the immediate success, we urgently looked for a new and bigger location. Merely two years after opening our first shop we moved to a bigger location, at Kuttelgasse 4, in the very heart of Zürich's downtown district.

The poster was with Federica and the Slogan "Aha! TA-BOU".

On March 8^th 1978 (International women's day), TA-BOU opens the first shop in Zürich. It the first and only shop to offer beachwear all year round. Marcia adorns the first TA-BOU poster.