Street Beat: O'Neill Girls
| Blog Listng |
From: SurfSalad.com August 19, 2010 |
Prev Post | Next Post |
Photo: O'Neill
O'Neill Girls Sr. Design Director, Whitney MorrisWhen you think of summer, you think of the beach. When you think of the beach, you think of swimwear. The swimwear market overall is very competitive, but women's swimwear is uber-competitive. It's critical to differentiate your line while staying, dare I say it, en vogue.
One company with a leg up on the field is O'Neill Girls. With Sr. Design Director Whitney Morris at the helm and a strategic partnership with international supermodel Elyse Taylor in place, O'Neill Girls is looking better than ever. I wanted the scoop on Spring 2011 Swimwear. Enjoy!
- Danny Spyra
Photo: O'Neill
Dots shirred tri top and tie side bottom
BNQT - AFTER VIEWING THE SPRING 2011 O'NEILL GIRLS SWIM LINE, I FEEL IT IS VERY DIVERSIFIED. WHAT INFLUENCED THIS COLLECTION?
Whitney - For Spring 2011, O'Neill Girls brings a little something for everyone. Whether it's for a feminine girly-girl, a hippy at heart, or a fresh and forward girl who loves to mix her prints and stay on top of the trends, we look to appeal to all of them and approach our line as not just a traditional surf swim line, but a fashion line as well.
Overall, we went with a "Festival Tour" theme, playing off of the countless music festivals that inspire us every year across the globe. Always keeping with our California Cool vibe, we've thrown in numerous details, prints and colors that have a slight 70's boho feel with others that are a little more modern. All are meant to be mixed and matched to fit any personality, making it very diversified.
Photo: O'Neill
International supermodel Elyse Taylor in the Soul
Searcher one piece
BNQT - INTERNATIONAL SUPERMODEL ELYSE TAYLOR IS GOING TO SERVE AS A BRAND AMBASSADOR FOR THE 2011 O'NEILL GIRLS LINE. WHAT KIND OF INVOLVEMENT WILL SHE HAVE?
Whitney - Elyse Taylor will be the face of O'Neill Girls throughout all of our advertising in 2011, starting with our Spring collection which debuts in January. She will also work very closely with our brand on our major events and even in designing a small limited edition collection of swimwear. She's currently working very closely with our design team on her swim collection to get every little detail perfect for her first design collaboration. We can't wait to unveil the results!
Before then, you can see Elyse on the runway at our O'Neill Generation Next event in association with Teen Vogue, set for October 9th in Hollywood -- it will be open to the public and streamed LIVE on facebook.com/oneillgirls.
Photo: O'Neill
Henna bra top and basic skrimpy bottom shown with
Overboard tote
BNQT - HOW WILL THE ELYSE TAYLOR FOR O'NEILL COLLECTION DIFFER FROM THE 2011 SPRING SWIM LINE?
Whitney - Overall, the influence of Elyse's personal style and her experiences traveling around the world as a supermodel bring the line together. The Elyse Taylor collection for O'Neill will be more sophisticated with sexier fits using high-end Italian fabrics. The colors and prints are all very feminine and vintage inspired. We're really excited about this collaboration and love that it has a different look and feel than the rest of the O'Neill Girls swim line.
Photo: O'Neill
Foxy triangle top and tie side bottom
BNQT - THE DETAILING AND RUFFLES ON THE FOXY SUIT LOOK INCREDIBLE. WAS THIS BIKINI MORE DIFFICULT THAN OTHERS TO PRODUCE?
Whitney - Our FOXY bikini has fun fringe detail in a shiny lycra fabric that makes it extremely unique. Ultimately it's not harder to produce, but we always try to throw in special details and this suit adds just a bit of flair to the overall line assortment. It's a great festival piece, perfect with denim cut-off shorts.
Photo: O'Neill
70s inspired Wanderer triangle top and tie side
bottom shown with the Ella jacket
BNQT - I DIG THE TIE-DYE THEMES THAT RUN THROUGH A FEW ITEMS. HOW MANY PIECES REFERENCE THE 70s RETRO CULTURE?
Whitney - At O'Neill, we are constantly inspired by the spirit of the 70's and bohemian culture. Tye-Dyes and washes never seem to go away. We're always influenced by our authentic roots as a California Brand and the lifestyle that comes with that, so it's only natural that certain looks seem second nature to us and fit in our line effortlessly.
You'll always see a lot of that inspiration throughout our collections, not just in swim, as we love to mix vintage with modern to keep evolving our look and feel.
Photo: O'Neill
Charlotte crochet tank with Stroke basic bottom
BNQT - O'NEILL SWIMWEAR SEPARATES ARE VERY AFFORDABLE; SOME RANGE IN PRICE FROM $32-36. HAS THE ECONOMY SHIFTED YOUR PRICE POINTS DOWN?
Whitney - Swimwear is such a competitive market and has really changed over the last couple of years. With mass retailers like Forever21 and H&M selling on the cheap, it's made all of us more price conscious. We'll never adopt their same strategy when it comes to swim, since we pride ourselves in our fit and quality, but we've always offered some kind of incentive to our retailers -- and this year it's better pricing in order to stay competitive.
BNQT - WHO DOES O'NEILL GIRLS SWIMWEAR TARGET? WHAT KIND OF A GIRL DO YOU ENVISION WEARING THE BRAND?
Whitney - O'Neill targets a free-spirited and adventurous girl who loves to embrace fashion whether she's surfing, at the pool with her friends or lounging at the beach. We've found that many girls in their teens and 20's are drawn to O'Neill swimwear because it appeals to anyone who loves a great fitting suit with prints and details that are on-trend. Our girl loves to mix and match different tops and bottoms, throw on her favorite button down shirt over an O'Neill suit, and express her own unique personality and style.
Street Beat Archive:
Dustin & Dylan Odbert with ambsn
John Harbin with West Wetsuits
Nicole Hanriot with TAVIK Swimwear
Matt Gleason with Liquid Force
Jonathan Paskowitz with Lightning Bolt
Street Beat reaches out to the females!