Jamie DeFay Collins enjoys surfing and paddling, and for most of the year feels at home in a bikini. But when the temperature dips or the water is rough, a wet suit is the way to go, and she always lamented having to don one, not because of the need to cover up.

"I’m really into style. I have a massive bikini collection, and I just find wet suits boring," she said.

"Wet suits were originally made for men, and guys are fine wearing T-shirts and boring wet suits. When they started being made for women, they just made a few minor changes, but girls want to look sexy and stylish in the water."

So Collins set out to redesign the wet suit to suit her fashion sensibility.A year and a half after stitching up her first suit, she has a growing business, Sirensong Wetsuits, to show for her effort.

"I was inspired by swimwear and wanted it to be really feminine. I spent a lot of time looking at dresses and how dresses are made to emphasize an hourglass figure to see where the seams were.

"It was only for me, but my friends were excited about it and that’s how it turned into a business."

She’s taking pre-orders for her sleeveless "springsuits," cropped tops and long-sleeve wet suits online at www.sirensongwetsuits.com for $180 to $250, and recently launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign at www.indiegogo.com/projects/sirensong-wetsuits to raise funds to start full commercial production of her collection in Canada and China. One week into her campaign, she was able to raise $12,929, surpassing her $12,000 goal. The campaign will continue through June 21, with funds raised also going toward sponsoring aspiring athletes.

Even with commercial production in place this summer, Collins’ wet suits will continue to be one-of-a-kind as she finishes each with her hand-painted and stenciled designs that resemble tribal motifs.

"I look at each suit as a blank canvas for my art. I use some color blocking with different colors of neoprene, but from the beginning I painted on each one and had no issues with bleeding or rubbing off," she said. "Certain designs are very popular and people request them, but most are one-offs. People might ask for a design in their favorite color, and I’m very flexible in accommodating them."

COLLINS, who will turn 35 next month, grew up in Davis, Calif., and learned to surf in San Diego. Beyond the mere whim to redesign the wet suit for women, she had the proper fashion credentials. She earned her bachelor’s degree in design with a textiles emphasis from the University of California at Davis, a degree that was shelved after she graduated in 2002. For a while she tried making bikinis but had trouble getting noticed in the oversaturated marketplace. She’s spent 12 years working as an environmental consultant, the last five in Hawaii, where living on the North Shore gave her a greater appreciation of water sports.

Neither her sewing skills nor having spent most of her life wearing wet suits prepared her for working with neoprene, the fabric-coated synthetic rubber that, in wet suits, provides ocean athletes with insulation from the cold, and extra buoyancy.

"It took me a while to figure out which neoprene to use. I thought they were all the same and had no idea what I was doing. I found out the one I was trying to use was made for (computer) mousepads, so it was not stretchy at all.

"I had a couple of sewing machines but had to figure out which one could work with neoprene, which needle to use, what kind of thread. Everything is different with neoprene. Usually it has fabric on each side, but the first roll I worked with only had fabric on one side, so the rubber would cling to the sewing machine and jam it up."

She finally settled on a lighter-weight neoprene, at 2 to 3 millimeters thick versus the usual 5 millimeters. It took a few months of trial-and-error work to finish her first suit, and when it was done she had to muster up the courage to wear it.

"I let it sit around awhile. It took a few days before I put it on. I was so nervous about going out with it because it looked so different from what everyone else was wearing, but it worked out great."

She’s especially proud of her springsuits that look like swimsuits and are offered in a choice of "Hawaiian-style, skimpy" bottoms or full coverage for those "who don’t want to show that much."

Collins also developed a cropped top for athletes who don’t want to worry about wardrobe malfunctions while on the waves.

For suits that are supposed to fit like a glove, Collins said getting the right fit can be a challenge, but she feels she’s worked with enough bodies to offer four sizes, from extra small to large, with some room for alterations.

"I tell people how to measure, where to measure. It’s difficult, but I’ve done it without ever seeing the person. I’ve shipped to Australia, all across the United States and Dubai."

After learning about her suits, BYU Hawaii’s design department "adopted" her company. The students were put to work during a semester-long project involving exercises in photography, videography and marketing that would help them develop brand-promotion skills.

"I was lucky to have these young, creative minds working together on my company. It’s been a long and difficult process from the time I made my first wet suit to now, but I think this is it, this is the right thing for me to do. Everything just clicked."