MIAMI BEACH — Seems as if everybody in the fashion business is jumping into the swimwear pool — or at least trying to establish a presence in the resort-centered fashion marketplace.

Several collections were presented for the first time on the runways at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Miami Swim, which kicked off Thursday night in South Beach on the grounds of the historic Raleigh hotel.

The opening act, a swim- and resort-wear show by the Italian jeans giant Diesel, featured styles geared toward women, men and children — with little or no actual denim except for a women's suit that looks like a pair of cut-offs and men's trunks with a blue-denim vibe. Instead, an athletic, slightly edgy collegiate prepster aesthetic is key to the company's first foray into the swimwear realm. It's hardly what you'd expect to see on fraternity or sorority types named Muffy or Biff, but the references to old school campus symbolism are clear.

Designer Amy Smilovic, who launched her Tibi collection just over a decade ago, has also developed a new swim collection, which she showed Friday evening.

"I'm going back to my roots," Smilovic said backstage before her print-heavy Tibi swim line debut. The colorful women's suits, cover-ups, tunics and casual dresses feature refigured Indonesian batik-style prints, the basis of the original Tibi women's ready-to-wear collection, she said.

Former Victoria's Secret designer Sylvie Cachay, whose Syla (sea-la) collection was established 21/2 years ago, took a chance on the catwalk to bring more attention to her luxurious, high-end women's swimwear and resortwear.

"I'm a little fish who wants to be a big one," Cachay said.

"I'm all about prints and colors," she said.

Her suits aren't fussed up with grommets, chains, charms and other details, she said. "They are really about fit."

Models wore plenty of jewelry, however, in the three-part show, which featured a segment of "WASPy, glamorous divas" followed by a group of "sexed-up hippie girls from the '70s" and culminating in Syla suits and garb meant to evoke the image of an '80s "punk rock chick" with a hint of the '60s as well, the designer said.

A self-professed dyed-in-the-Lycra type, Cachay added black to her first runway collection. "Plum was my black before this season," she said.

Bahama 'a little sexier'

"Modern tropics" was the theme of Tommy Bahama's presentation Friday of mostly women's and a few men's swimwear and resort fashions for 2009.

Lynne Koplin, California-based president of the Tommy Bahama women's division, had a hand in the creation of the collection.

She called the styles "a little sexier" than expected from the label, a department-store staple with a slightly safe, noncontroversial image.

"Our customer is looking for something a little more glamorous and sophisticated," she said.

The Bahama collection doesn't push the envelope. The styles aren't provocative or trashy, as some swim and resort wear can be.

Lines and cuts are classic and not too revealing.

Palm-leaf prints in tones that are bright for the usually faded Bahama line are applied to bikinis and maillots and, as with Syla, the line works in some black instead of the more natural, neutral-brown tones Koplin said were staples — and best-sellers — of the women's collection, launched three years ago.

The wilder side of Tommy Bahama, if there is one, is revealed in a series of suits and coverups in leopard prints. They are the only overt reference to flash in an otherwise tasteful and covered-up series of suggestions for dressing for the beach.

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