Quiksilver Women’s and the push for greater accessibility and inclusion.
Historically, the fashion industry has been to blame for generalising the term beauty – a word that has become pigeon-holed to represent a very narrow-minded view of what is beautiful. This has left the ones who do not fit within these ‘frames’ feeling like they can’t live up to the ‘unrealistic’ standards created by the fashion industry.
Over the last few years, we have, however, started to witness a shift in this. The public has begun to demand more diversity and realness from fashion, resulting in brands using a greater variety of models for their campaigns. The ‘generic’ beauty ideal that has been created within society is slowly changing as we become exposed to more diversity in media. This helps us to understand that beauty is subjective and cannot be represented by only one type of person.
In summer 2019, Quiksilver Women’s made its debut on the market by launching a collection that doesn’t just target one certain type of woman. As the brand states on their website, they aren’t willing to put Quiksilver Women’s in a box, “We’re an accessible and open-minded brand that celebrates individuality.”
Shop the Quiksilver Women’s collection on Surfdome here.
According to the Product Manager at Quiksilver Women, Jade Charvin, the brand received loads of positive feedback from the market after its launch: “We decided to continue with this mindset and are searching inspiration deep in our archives in order to always keep our DNA, and what makes us different from all other brands.”
With deep roots in the surf industry, Quiksilver doesn’t just want to cater for one type of surfer. Their line is made to be worn by anyone, no matter if you’re living in a big city or next to a sandy beach. By staying true to their DNA, Quiksilver aims to spike interest with a large variety of people all with different personalities. This, they hope, will underline the fact that no matter who you are or what you look like, you can be a surfer.
By introducing a new women’s surf team, Quiksilver has brought together a bunch of different ladies with different backgrounds and personalities. “We are trying to build a new type of ‘surf team’. One that differentiates itself because it is not based around competition, but the culture and enjoyment of surf.”, Arthur Pommiers, Quiksilver’s Marketing Coordinator EMEA, tells us.
“We’ve just signed Thembi in the US, a graphic designer who runs Club98, and is all about community. We also have Marynn, who is an incredible artist who surfs daily as a way to switch off from her work, have fun and connect with friends. And Ivy Thomas who is an incredible longboarder with a unique personality, attitude and style that goes against the expected.” With more to come over the next few months.
These profiles lay the blueprint for Quiksilver. The brand wants to represent a global community and by doing so represent all sorts of women. As a brand, they are looking to create international friendships through surf and open up the ‘sport’ to everyone. They hope this will encourage more people to get involved, as they come to realize that surfing is more accessible than we’re often lead to believe.
Quiksilver Women is an outlet for expression and storytelling, representing an attitude shared by women around the world. The line is about different people with different personalities, about inclusion and embracing our differences. By creating a more diverse team to represent their women’s collection Quiksilver seeks to promote this.
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Quiksilver is also big on sustainability and it’s a priority within the product development team. The brand is putting a lot of energy into sustainable innovation and offering a wide range of durable products produced using sustainable fabrics, which can be seen throughout their entire collection.
This summer, 57% of Quiksilver’s range is made using sustainable and eco-friendly fabrics while 100% of their swimwear is sustainable. The secret behind this is Econyl, which is regenerated nylon made from abandoned fishing nets and nylon waste pulled from landfills and oceans around the world. On top of that, the majority of Quiksilver’s t-shirts are also made from organic cotton. Organic cotton produces about 46% less CO2e compared to conventional cotton, which is already a huge win for the environment.
Sustainability doesn’t always come cheap, but a product with a longer life is a wiser investment in the long run. “For sure, sustainable and eco-friendly fabrics are, for now, more expensive but the world is slowly moving, and we are trying our best by keeping our price policy.” Jade continues, “Sustainability is the new standard.”
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Building on 2020’s success, the 2021 Quiksilver Women will be represented by women from communities all around the globe. The urban twist combined with surfy vibes gives the collection a bit more of an edge, differentiating it from the status quo.
This year’s collection is brought to life through attitude driven art and timeless pieces promoted by a new raft of global voices. The emphasis is on being able to express your individuality through the clothes, rather than the clothes telling their story through you.
The new Quiksilver Women summer collection 2021 has been designed around new fabrics that mix lightness, texture, comfort, and sustainability. For every season, Quiksilver draws its inspiration from a key design story. “The overall themes of each collection come together as once from a variety of sources to create a unique look. We inspired ourselves around archive prints and a bright and unfiltered colour palette.”, Jade tells us.
“The ‘signature’ print of the season features an all-over print of bamboo mixed with Graphic items on a bright pink background. You will also find a print directly inspired by our archive in our second summer drop. Our heritage is rich and is clearly a big inspiration for our design and our graphic team.”
We can also see the OG ‘checkerboard’ print (another heritage piece from the Quiksilver archives) appear across apparel from swim to surf. As for boardshorts in general, we can expect a whole lot more for 2022, according to Quiksilver’s Marketing Coordinator, Arthur: “For 2022, we are looking to supplement our lifestyle pieces with surf gear such as real boardshorts (we were the first brand to make them) and wetsuits, looking at how we can help protect people in the water, looking at sun protection alongside technical ability.”
According to Product Manager Jade, this collection represents a big step in the Quiksilver Women collection, “The number of products is increasing, and we allow ourselves to have some fun. This season’s summer collection is about bright and cool prints, where fashion meets a comfy fit, all tied in with the brand’s surf DNA. You can really feel the Quiksilver vibe in all our pieces and we hope that you will enjoy this collection as much as we loved to design it.”
