Some of the best family beach photos aren't planned. They're taken on a Tuesday at a beach nobody particularly picked — the one you ended up at because you took a wrong turn off the main road and it turned out to be the right one. The kids are in the water. The dad is wading in after them. And they happen to be wearing the same print, because that's what they packed, and it just worked out.
That's the version worth aiming for.
Matching swimwear, done right, isn't about the photo. It's about the family that actually spends time in the water together — and happens to look like they belong there when they do.
The Difference Between Matching and Coordinating
Matching is identical. Everyone in the same print, the same color, the same everything. It can work — but it tends to read as a choice made for the camera rather than for the day.
Coordinating is more useful and harder to get wrong. It means the family's swimwear shares a color story or a print direction without being identical. The father and son might be in the same print. The mother's suit picks up one of the colors in that print. Nobody is wearing a billboard that says we planned this — they just look like they belong to the same trip.
Le Club Original's approach leans toward the second version. The Father & Son collection offers the same prints in men's and boys' sizes — a direct match between the two that anchors the family's look. Mom's swimwear coordinates through color rather than identical fabric.
Father & Son: The Anchor of the Look
The Father & Son collection is where to start. Same print, proportioned correctly for each — men's sizing from XS through XXL, boys' sizing from XS (ages 1–2) through XXL (ages 14+).
The prints in the collection are designed for the water first. Bold enough to be interesting, restrained enough to work at a beach club or a restaurant without looking like you tried too hard. The kind of print that looks better after a few hours in the sun than it did when you took it out of the bag.
Shop Father & Son Matching Swim Trunks
Getting the sizing right:
For the father: if you know his shirt size, that's your starting point for trunks. Le Club runs true to size with an adjustable drawstring, so anywhere between sizes, go up. For a full guide to men's trunk length and fit, see the men's swim trunks length guide.
For the son: use age as a starting point, then cross-check with outseam length. Boys grow fast and in different directions — two kids the same age can be very different sizes. The boys' swim trunks size guide maps every size from XS to XXL with age ranges and exact outseam measurements.
Bringing Mom Into the Look
Women's swimwear rarely comes in identical prints to men's — and it doesn't need to. Coordination through color is more elegant than full matching, and it gives each person room to wear something they'd actually choose for themselves rather than something chosen for the group.
The simplest approach: identify the dominant color in the Father & Son print and build from there.
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A print built on navy and white → a navy one-piece or a white and navy bikini coordinates naturally
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A print built on aqua and sand → an aqua bikini or a solid sand-toned suit pulls the palette together
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A bold tropical print → a solid in one of the print's accent colors (coral, green, yellow) reads as part of the same story without competing
The goal is that someone looking at the family on the beach would sense the cohesion without being able to immediately identify it as planned. That's the right level.
For help choosing between a bikini and a one-piece for a family trip, the bikini vs. one-piece guide covers the decision in detail.
When It's Just the Two of You
Not every family beach trip is the whole family. Sometimes it's a father and a son, a long weekend away, a charter boat to somewhere good.
That's where the Father & Son collection is most itself — not as a coordinated family photo moment, but as two people who do this together. The matching print is a small signal of that. It doesn't need to mean anything more than it does.
A few fathers buy the Father & Son trunks years in advance — picking up the next size up before the son is ready for it, holding onto it until he grows into it. There's something worth keeping in that.
A Few Things That Make Coordinated Swimwear Work
One shared element is enough. Print, color, or silhouette — pick one point of connection and let everything else be individual. A family where everyone is in a different color but the same print reads as coordinated. A family where every detail matches reads as a uniform.
Let the kids' personality show. A boy who hates a certain color will spend the whole trip pulling at his trunks. Let him pick from two or three options that work within the palette and call it done. The coordination holds.
Pack for the trip, not the photo. The best family beach photos happen in the middle of an actual day — coming out of the water after a long swim, eating something on the boat, exploring a beach that wasn't on the itinerary. The swimwear works best when nobody is thinking about it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best matching swimwear for families? The most wearable family matching swimwear is coordinated rather than identical — the same print in father's and son's sizes (like Le Club Original's Father & Son collection), with the mother's suit picking up a color from that print rather than an identical fabric. This approach looks cohesive without looking costumed, and gives each person something they'd actually choose to wear independently.
Does Le Club Original make father and son matching swim trunks? Yes. Le Club Original's Father & Son collection offers the same prints in men's sizes (XS–XXL) and boys' sizes (XS for ages 1–2 through XXL for ages 14+). The prints are designed for coastal and resort wear — bold enough to be interesting, proportioned correctly for each age.
How do I size matching swim trunks for my son? Size by age as a starting point, then cross-check with outseam length — boys vary significantly in build at the same age. Le Club Original's boys' sizes run XS (ages 1–2, 9½" outseam) through XXL (ages 14+, 14" outseam). When between sizes, go up — the adjustable drawstring handles the waist, and a slightly longer trunk always looks better than one he's outgrown. See the full boys' size guide for the complete chart.
How do I coordinate women's swimwear with a father-son matching set? Identify the dominant color or accent color in the Father & Son print and choose a women's suit in that color as a solid. A navy, white, aqua, or coral one-piece or bikini will coordinate with most tropical and coastal prints without requiring an identical fabric. The goal is a shared color story, not a uniform.
What should a family wear to match at the beach without looking too planned? Coordinate through color rather than identical prints. Start with the Father & Son matching trunks as the anchor, then build the rest of the family's swimwear around the colors in that print. One shared element — print, color, or palette — is enough to read as coordinated. Identical outfits on every family member read as planned for a photo rather than worn for a day.
Shop Le Club Original's Father & Son collection — matching prints in men's and boys' sizes, designed for the water and everything that comes after it. Free domestic shipping on orders over $50.