Earlier this week I went along to the press viewing of Stolen Girlfriends Club's latest, a surf trip of a collection they've dubbed 'Rogue Wave'.
It was a simple but fun presentation: models in a room adorned with silver tinsel and canvas prints of various psychedelic tropic motifs - blissed out, and slightly creepy, dolphins, intensely blue seawater, swaying palm fronds.
It all enhanced the surfer vibe of the range, with its nineties sportswear references: board shorts, mesh, neon slogans and a checkerboard print reminiscent of Vans (admittedly they're more an icon of that other sub-culture, skating). The highlight of the range though - emphasis on high - was a trippy pineapple print in lurid yellow and turquoise.
Surf culture and its aesthetics are ideas the brand have looked at before - several times actually. Marc Moore, a co-founder of the brand along with Dan Gosling and US-based Luke Harwood, explained that with this collection they were cautious of not wanting to commercialise surf culture.I get that, but dude! You've built your brand on it.
The range will go into stores towards November, as a Resort line - an idea that is increasingly catching on here with designers offering smaller, more frequent collections in an attempt to keep customers interested - and spending - rather than the traditional two season drops that sit in store for months.
