For almost a year, Greg Chait and Bailey Hunter of The Elder Statesman had been discussing the idea of starting a surfing label. “Surfing can be more than just surfing,” Chait said via Zoom from the showroom in Paris where they hold market appointments. “You can surf waves of many different things; it’s such a good metaphor for life.” So they made the label a reality and landed on the name Interdimensional Surf; the line focuses on fabrics that can be worn all year round and are easy to maintain. Take, for example, the “Italian cotton workwear” pants that open the lookbook, with pockets hand-sprayed with retro flames and a sunset motif. A hybrid dress/hoodie made of washable terry cotton “with a bit of cashmere” is inspired by the cover-ups that some surfers wear when they take off their wetsuits and put on regular clothes on the beach.
That surfing frame of mind obviously influenced their pre-fall collection, and the duo reached out to Ozzy Wright, an Australian pro surfer and artist who makes work under the name Ozzy Wrong, to collaborate on a series of colorful tie-dye cashmere sweaters. decorated with slogans such as THE ONLY WAY OUT IS THE WAY IN, a white cotton sweater with intarsia motif with a quick sketch of an eyeball with the text OPEN YOUR EYES TO THE WORLD, and a sweater with an infinity logo consisting of patchwork dolphins with smiley faces and the word DOLPHINITY running down the arms. Very groovy.
Elsewhere, it was some of the label’s special womenswear that stood out; like the easy maxi slip dress made from a super lightweight tropical wool plaid in two different color palettes, or a ribbed T-shirt and matching skirt made from cotton cashmere in an abstract pattern of yellow flowing into orange flowing into lavender.
