Every so often Tessa sends me a design with no message attached, which is how I know it's good. That's how most of this collection reached me: enthusiastically, in batches, usually at an hour when I had other plans. Brooke looked at the first group for about five seconds and said, "She's right." From Brooke, that's a parade.
So here it is: the Salty Mermaid Crop Tops collection. Salty ~ in the attitude sense, not the beach-souvenir sense. These are the mermaids who said the thing out loud (the thing the rest of us rehearsed in the car and then softened at the last second).
You've met these women
Left On Read, Beachside is the friend who stopped checking her phone and started checking the horizon. Next, Please ends conversations the way other people end sentences. I Said Impress Me does not ask twice. And Plan Ahead Darling... we all know her. Some of us are her, and we are not sorry.
Not every design in the collection arrives with an eyebrow raised. Sea Tea & Pearls hears everything and repeats almost none of it. Booked and Busy is a calendar, not a confession. Self-Care Siren has a standing appointment with herself and keeps it. Succulents Over Sailors made her choice years ago and waters it faithfully.
Then there's the social wing. Crabby Happy Hour, Tipsy Siren Soirée and Pour Decisions For Two belong to the mermaids whose evenings start with "just one" and end with a story nobody tells the same way twice. Tentacle Pour Decisions is what happens when you have extra arms and zero judgment. Side-Eye Siren supervises all of it without saying a word, because she has never needed to.
What they're printed on
Every design in the collection comes on a Comfort Colors premium tee, and a few of my favorites (looking at you, Midnight Tide and Dead Serious Chemistry) are also available as Comfort Colors long sleeves, for the women who hold opinions in cooler weather too.
Who came to mind?
Maybe you read those names and saw yourself. Maybe you saw your sister, your best friend, the one who always texts back "already there." You don't have to be the salty one to know exactly who is. That's rather the point.
Pearl inspected the first delivery personally and declined to comment, which from Pearl counts as a glowing endorsement.
The full lineup is waiting in the Salty Mermaid Crop Tops collection. Start with the one that made you think of somebody. You'll know it when you see it.
Written by Mari Bennett. Thanks for reading.