This spring, Jan & Jul generously shared some UV swimwear sets with us from their summer line. Having already used their wonderful adjustable sun hats for several years, as well as testing out their snowsuits, boots, and mittens in a Pacific Northwest winter, we were delighted to try something new from them. If you’re not familiar with the brand, Jan & Jul is a female owned company based out of Vancouver, Canada, whose founder, Florence, started out by sewing for her own daughters, which led to the idea for her popular adjustable sun hats. Florence grew up working with textiles in rural China, and based on her experiences believes in supporting women in the very town she grew up in by having women there produce Jan & Jul’s products for fair wages in a positive work environment overseen by Florence’s own sister. The company also runs an annual campaign to raise money for the World Food Programme and has provided significant donations to the Canadian Red Cross. It’s important to us as a family to use products that are ethically produced from good companies and we feel that’s the case with Jan & Jul!

Testing Them Out in Australia

Last month we headed to Australia to visit family and knew we’d be spending a lot of time at the beach. What better place to test out Jan & Jul’s UV swimwear than Australia, known for having particularly intense sun exposure? We packed the kiddos new Jan & Jul suits and had plenty of opportunities to try them out at multiple beaches from Busselton up to Perth and here’s what we thought.

*The kids having a blast playing in their Jan & Jul swimwear at the beach*

Fit

First off, our thoughts on fit. We purchased a 4T for our 4-year-old son who is turning five this summer. He is a little small for his age so it fit perfectly. We ordered a 3T for our 2-year-old daughter as she’s turning three this summer and is tall for her age. It fit perfectly for length but she’s slender so it looked a bit oversized as expected having sized up. Her 4-year-old cousin tested it out too and it actually fit her perfectly! As such, I would say the fit is pretty true to size bordering on large, which is perfect as you don’t want to hassle with skin tight swimwear with kids! Along those lines, something we really liked about the fit of these was a wider neck on both suits so you don’t have to struggle to get the kids’ heads through. The kind of thoughtful design element we’ve come to expect from this company with a mother as the founder!

Final verdict - Order true to size and if it’s a tiny bit big they can grow into it or it might be a perfect fit if your kiddo is on the higher end of the growth chart.

*Our 4.5-year-old son in a 4T and his 4-year-old cousin in a 3T. They are basically the same size and both suits fit them well!*

Fabric Quality, Feel & Fading

The fabric for these swimsuits feels great. Very soft and stretchy and so far color fast. We washed them multiple times while we were in Australia without any fading. I’m sure they will eventually become a bit sun faded, but so far they are handling the sun and washing well. We also haven’t had any issues with pilling, snagging, or seams coming undone either.

Final verdict - Soft stretchy truly quick dry fabric with lay flat seams that the kids found comfy with no chaffing despite highly active play. So far no fading, pilling, or snagging after two weeks of beach play and multiple washes. We’ll post an update at the end of the summer to let you know how they’re holding up after a longer length of time.

*The kids found the swimwear comfy for their highly active play*

*Soft stretchy color fast fabric with anti chaffing lay flat seams*

*The color is still looking vibrant after two weeks of sunny beach play and multiple washes*

Quick Dry Ability

The fabric is advertised as quick dry and did indeed dry out extremely fast on our beach days or air drying at home. Super nice when you don’t want to pack up soggy swimwear at the end of the day. I’d estimate that their suits were mostly dry in around 15 minutes in the sun out of the water.

Final verdict - Mostly dry in about 15 minutes out of the water

UV Protection

Jan & Jul’s swimwear has a UPF of 50+ for whatever is covered by the swimwear and our kiddos didn’t get a single sunburn during our trip thanks to it plus our Jan & Jul sun hats which they wore when I wasn’t taking photos. That said, I think the long sleeve option is definitely preferable so you don’t have to sunscreen arms. We would also love it if Jan & Jul would make a long-sleeved long-pants version of their swimwear like Columbia’s full body swimsuits for kids so you don’t have to sunscreen legs either!

Final verdict - Great UV protection for whatever is covered by the swimwear, so getting a long sleeved version of their swimwear would be our recommendation! Along those lines, we’d love for Jan & Jul to make a full body (long legs too) version of their swimwear for parents like me who don’t want to put sunscreen on their kiddos legs either :)

Style

You can pick from several different styles for Jan & Jul swimwear. We chose short and top sets - one long sleeved and one short sleeved. I prefer maximum sun protection so would have done long sleeves for both kids except that our son absolutely loves the color orange and they didn’t have the orange suit in a long sleeved option. There was still way less to sunscreen even with the shorts and T-shirt option so it was okay, but we did like the long sleeved option more. They also offer standard style girl’s swimsuits and the new addition of one piece zip up long sleeved suits, so just about something for everyone. Their suits are stylish with lots of cute prints and cheery colors. Our daughter especially loved the bunny and flower print we chose for her and I love the fact that they offer nice prints for boys that are different than your standard dinosaurs, vehicles etc if that’s not your vibe.

*Stylish boys/neutral prints for people like me that don’t care for “classic” boy’s prints (photo credit -* ***Jan & Jul***)

*Adorable prints for girls too (Photo credit -* ***Jan & Jul***)

Final Thoughts

We put our Jan & Jul suits to a pretty vigorous test in Australia for 2 weeks at the beach with a very active 2-year-old and 4-year-olds and thought they held up great! The kids thought they were super comfy, no sunburns, legit quick dry fabric, and no pilling, snags, or fading. We’ll post an update at the end of the summer to let you know how they’ve continued to hold up, but at this point we’d definitely recommend them. Our only suggestion to Jan & Jul would be to also make a full body version of their swimwear for parents who’d like to avoiding having to sunscreen their kids legs. We look forward to seeing what Jan & Jul comes out with next!