Surf and Skate Culture: Redefining Australian Fashion

Surf and skate culture redefine modern Australian fashion with a relaxed, coastal lifestyle representation and a blend of functionality and youthful sensibility.

### The Evolution of Australian Surf and Skate Culture in Fashion
* 🏄 Surf and skate culture are integral parts of Australian identity, shaping the country's **fashion landscape**.
* 🌊 Established brands like Rip Curl and Billabong dominated the '70s and '80s, but **newer labels are now reshaping the scene**.
* 👕 The Critical Slide Society, led by Sam Coombes, focuses on **collaborative projects**, including **board shorts and fins**.
* 🎨 Melbourne-based designer Lucas Vincent's label X Infinitas blends surf culture with high fashion, creating a **"Suburban Surf Dandy" aesthetic**.
* 👖 Brands like 10 Pieces bridge the gap between **high street and high fashion**, offering **modern, versatile pieces**.
* 🏙 ️ Surf and skate culture is influencing mainstream Australian fashion, with a **relaxed, coastal lifestyle aesthetic** gaining popularity.
* 🌏 The culture remains rooted in **freedom, creativity, and diversity**, with a **strong sense of community**.
* 🏝 Despite the commercialization of some surf brands, the core values of the culture continue to **drive its fashion evolution**.

let's be real. There are a few scenes more idyllic than that of Australia's coastal living. You know, the early rises, waiting for the next wave, and kick-flipping kids rolling down promenades. And inevitably, a row of shops that go alongside the lifestyle. Yeah, surf and skate culture is a part of our national identity as Australians, whether you're the Point Break type or not. My name is Adam Bedi, and I'm a writer for GQ Australia. I've always been interested in style, especially the big-ticket names I grew up looking at in the pages of GQ. But I'm also interested in the rise of AA design and where it comes from. Because even though we might not be the most fashion-forward of nations, we do have something pretty unique about us. To some degree, surf is also like it's part of Australian culture. This is pretty fresh. This has menw. I think it's the attitude which makes the fashion, not necessarily the fashion, you know. Although surfing started with the ancient Polynesians, it was a spike in

popularity and the modernization of the board in the '50s and '60s saw it begin to flourish, and like every new craze, a style culture grew up around it. Brands like Rip Curl, Billabong, Hot China, Globe, and Quicksilver quickly established themselves as mainstay surf brands in the '70s and '80s. Now it's younger brands taking up the mantle; they're ensuring homegrown labels continue to reshape surf and skate culture from the high street to the skate park to the water. One man who grew up during that time is Sam Kums. Having worked at surf brand Mambo in its heyday, he's now the co-founder of the Critical Slide Society, a label born out of a blog and a love of the sea. It was all about brands, the brands that I was into: Mambo, Bongs, a little bit of Quickie, you know. Then you'd have some American brands, so things like Vision Street Wear as well was massive. And then you had your specific heroes that, you know.

Tom, Carol, and yeah, what I grew up with, and that's what all the kids wore. Surf as a whole has just become, you know, it's big business. Surf is also like, it's part of Australian culture, and it's part of what Australians wear. Like, you know, that's what you wear to the beach, and what I wear down to the shops. And it's a celebration of really about being in the water, as opposed to sort of being a super competitive surfer, because at the end of the day, you know, 99.999% of surfers in the water, they're not there to actually compete, they're out there to just enjoy being on a wave and just having, hopefully, just having fun. Sam's emphasis on gathering together a group of like-minded people extends to collaborative projects, including records, tees, fins, and artwork. This is helping to reshape affordable High Street surf style, bringing the culture back to its founding ideals. Bo shorts are probably, um, what we're best known for. So we actually won best board short two years.

running but you know this is is working um in collaboration with our uh with our Shapers. So this is Thomas Sur for's uh Finn that we've sort of codesign with him. Uh so Thomas is out of um ner in in Queensland. And then this is one of our team writers High LS flint and even small little tweaks like he's put this little cutting through here to actually give you a little bit more a little bit more Flex. Would you would you say that maybe surfing has moved away from being a counterculture is now more of a storyteller and collaboration culture especially like touching on those fins and yeah. I think it's definitely about bringing together like a community of like minded sort of individuals and uh to some degree that's was even part of the the naming of the company the critical slide Society. So it was actually about becoming a society like it's a group of people that are kind of hopefully into kind of similar sort of stuff. Surf and skate culture is redefining modern Australian fashion.

it's relaxed, it's functional, and it represents a coastal lifestyle. It's not stuffy like tailoring or flashy like luxury, so it makes sense that Salomon Co's functional tees and colorful bodies are a hit. But as high fashion continues to soften around the edges, surf and skate culture has become an entry point for a youthful sensibility. It's something Melbourne-based designer Lucas Vincent and his label X Infinitas has successfully exported. I mean, I was a kid that grew up on the peninsula, so I was always wearing Rip Curl or Mambo. I mean, used to love the dog like humping the legs and the pissing dog, the farting dog. Like, oh, you were nothing if you have those bodies, exactly. So for me, the earliest memories of fashion was definitely surf culture specifically. And I guess that's why when I decided to start my own brand, that was the only, I guess, honest and authentic way I felt I could operate by, right? So that's your way of kind of

translating the surf culture you grew up with into something a bit more sophisticated. Exactly because I do like to take the kind of mundane, very everyday aspects of Australian culture and then elevate it in some way. Rose Bud to Paris. Rose Bud to Paris. Exactly. This is one of the things that I created for the international Walmart prize recently. I guess a Longline coat, very minimal detail so it almost gives the appearance of a robe with like the skater belt on the back here. So, and then even things like this pant, which is I guess one of the more signature pants that I do with the board short detailing that you might see on a pair of 60s board shorts and the crisscross front here with the, you know, the logo on the end. Um, again, just subtle details I guess that allude to Surf and maybe you know what you would find in a surf shop. Yeah. Um, Lucas is writing a teen Lounge bout look that is called the Suburban surf Dandy. Think weed smoking.

Boys in woolen singlets, oversized coats, and chunky woolen hats, with denim pants and post-surf orange robes. You know, I'm really quite obsessed with the idea of, okay, what are these young guys doing when they're not surfing or skating? They're sitting around at home, smoking a joint, eating pizza in their robe and their slippers, and really not giving two Fs about life. So, I think we should finish this interview in orange coats. I think we should go back to the couch, the new season variation of that fabric. So, it's, you know, taking it to it's like, it's like a hoodie coat that is, well, this is actually like, you know, at the beach where the surfers wear the ponchos and they get changed underneath, you know. So, this is really just that with a sleeve and a hood and, you know, made into more like a throwover. Even with Lucas's more high-fashioned approach to surfwear and Sam's Critical Slide Society approach to high

Street there are Brands like 10 pieces that kind of sit somewhere in the middle affordable relaxed but still unique and modern. It's hel by Maurice toini so naturally we grabbed a beer at Bond like ionic icebergs to talk Muses well. I think more than more than surf culture itself I think it's more than you know just more the layback attitude of the beach. I think that that's that's a big influence on us um. Sports is a big influence on us things such as parkour that's probably that's where we started our inspiration and then we sort of adapted that to our attitude you know. I was a bit sick of sort of having outfits for the beach and then and then for for dinner and we wanted something that you know you could actually wear wherever you were going and it was more an attitude and a lifestyle the way and the way you sort of wore it and you know that you know you could you could could adapt been able to create a complete

look and actually wear almost the 10 pieces. Or wear only two of the pieces and be able to, you know, wear them out to dinner or to go to or to a club or to down the beach. We did a collaboration with Fitbit last year for, um, for our second show at Fashion Week. This year we're talking to a few different people like, like, you know, we're talking to people like Brett Chan, which comes, you know, obviously Skating World. So we'd like to bring it a little bit more back to Bondo and make it a little bit raw. I don't really look at Fashion or what's actually happening out there, um, you know, but in saying that, I think that, you know, with, you know, with each generation, I think that there's just a development either in a particular taste or, you know, a particular style. I think that the quality of product available out there in, in on the shelves is obviously much better than what it was 20 years ago. It's just part of our community, you know, quite like it, you know, my little boy's.

growing like he's three, and he's spent, you know, his first 3 years here in Bond. So, I think there'll be memories that we'll remember forever, and, and will shape us, and, and hopefully affect, continue to affect the way we approach close surfing and skating. Have always had countercultural routes, which is perhaps why Brands like Bong and Quicksilver lost their way. They became normal, but Brands like 10 Pieces and X Infinity are tapping back into that angst, a non-traditionalist approach to living. That's what's always been at the core of surf culture, right? Freedom, creativity, flare, diversity. So, it makes sense that the closing that makes up this subculture is just as diverse, as diverse as the people that drop into a skate bowl and ride waves across the country.

The Roots Of Australian Style: Surf + Skate | GQ

GQ Australia

The Evolution of Surf and Skate Culture in Australia

Surf and skate culture are integral to Australia's national identity, with a unique attitude driving fashion.

The popularity of surfing in the '50s and '60s led to the growth of a style culture, with brands like Rip Curl and Billabong becoming mainstays.

Today, younger brands like the Critical Slide Society are reshaping surf and skate culture in Australia.

The Evolution of Surf Culture in Australia

Surfing has transitioned from a counterculture to a collaborative storytelling community in Australia.

The focus is now on bringing like-minded individuals together through projects like records, tees, fins, and artwork.

This shift is helping to redefine modern Australian fashion, with an emphasis on affordable High Street surf style.

Salomon Co's functional and colorful tees have become popular as high fashion embraces a more relaxed style.

Melbourne-based designer Lucas Vincent successfully exports surf culture into fashion, taking everyday Australian elements and elevating them.

His designs, like the Longline coat and board short pants, incorporate subtle details reminiscent of the surf style, offering a sophisticated take on the culture.

Fashion Inspiration from Surf and Street Culture

Young men's fashion is influenced by a laid-back, beach attitude, blending high fashion with a relaxed style.

The brand 10 Pieces offers affordable, unique, and modern clothing that reflects the influence of sports like parkour.

The goal is to create versatile outfits that embody an attitude and lifestyle, inspired by the idea of being able to wear them anywhere.

Surf and skate fashion is evolving, with a focus on diversity and non-traditionalist approaches.

Brands like Bong and Quiksilver lost their way by becoming too normal, while newer brands like 10 Pieces and X Infinity are reconnecting with the countercultural roots.

The surf and skate community is shaped by freedom, creativity, and diversity, which is reflected in the clothing that represents this subculture.