S o u r c i n g L e a t h e r s

I have visited New South Wales Leather and Birdsall Leather multiple times trying to find brightly coloured leathers and suedes, which ideal for a resort range. Unfortunately, most of the bright colours are predominately in pig skins which are too thin and stretch easily. I have however found some nice calf and cow split skins a. The calf split skins are lovely and soft! Additionally i have experimented with painting the leather with leather dyes. The colours below have not photographed to their true tone...

C o l o u r E x p l o r a t i o n

I used images from the 1960s surf era to inspire my colour palette...

Herve Leger Spring 2009

Can I have them all?

Herve Leger Swimwear

Absolutely stunning cut outs and contouring of the body!

L E R O Y G R A N N I S

Legendary surf culture photographer of the 60's and 70s....

Source: Book, Leroy Grannis Surf Photography of the 1960s and 70s, Jim Heinmann and Steve Barilotti

W i c k e d K n i t w e a r

I have been researching knitwear as an alternative swim fabric. This idea was inspired by the 1940s & 50s swimwear which was primarily knit fabrics, prior to the introduction of lycra...
Check out Mark Fast's amazing knit work SS10/11

H a s a n H e j a z i S S 2 0 1 1

Love the sports/bondage look and the contrast in alternate fabrics.

This is a similar aesthetic I plan to depict through my range!

N e o p r e n e F a s h i o n

A l t e r n a t i v e F a b r i c s

I'm very interested in using alternative fabrics in my swim range such as leathers and pigskins. This idea was inspired by the interior of the vintage beach car. I have also been exploring into the use of neoprene in clothing rather than just swim garments... and also knitted swim.

I found some cool pics of some swim garments using alternative fabrics.  The style of the shoot is awsome!

Unfortunately the blog i got these from hasn't documented the designer or the source...

Source: http://www.bathingnews.com/bathing_news/2010/07/bikinis-fashion-swimwear-wetsuits-women.html#comments

A n n a & B o y

Anna & Boy based their 2010SS collection  on the 1960s beach culture.
I absolutely love their design style, colour choice, bold, playful prints. The make up and hair is also super cute!

Photos from http://www.fashionising.com/pictures/p--Anna-Boy-Spring-Summer-2010-6305-92487.html

D e s i g n s f r o m p r e v i o u s y e a r s

These are some of my previous works that capture my design style, which will be carried through  into our final project.

Women's Dress

Women's Resort Pants

Men's Jacket

R o b e r t R e a d e r

Another great photographer I stumbled across was Robert Reader.
He's perfected beach polaroid photography. He's pictures are quite abstract and simplistic but very suggestive of a story...

Check his website: http://www.robertreader.com/gallery.html

S u r f C i t y

The Museum of Sydney is showing an exhibition called Surf City, Starting 24th September. The photographic exhibition documents Sydney's surf and beach culture obsession of the 50's, 60's and 70s.

This would be great research for my collection but unfortunately it's opening will be too far into the year. Instead I researched some of the featuring photographers...

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Photographer: Bruce Usher

Exhibition link

http://www.hht.net.au/whats_on/exhibitions/exhibitions/surf_city