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When I admitted in a recent pitch meeting that I had never seen Blue Crush, shock ensued. My largely millennial editorial team could not believe I had survived the early aughts without seeing the 2002 rom com, in which Kate Bosworth stars as a surfer in training for a major competition. I now had a very fun homework assignment. I watch movies for the visuals—as to be expected in my line of work—and this one was committed to the bit. The surf style was so distinctive. Bosworth and friends would roll straight out of the ocean in their bikinis and puka-shell necklaces, yank on board shorts and a crop top, and head to town. But something about their style felt familiar. These early aughts surfers in Hawaii were dressed just like how my peers are outfitting themselves today in … Brooklyn?
Obviously, surfwear has never just stayed on the beach; if you engage in the sport, you’re likely to bring the fashion to every facet of your life. But now, it’s expanded way beyond beach towns. Today, swimwear is practically synonymous with ready-to-wear. Board shorts are worn on and off the beach, often paired with little high heels and trendy baguettes. Puka shell necklaces have breached the boardroom. Surfer style has infiltrated city streets on the backs of those who have never touched a surfboard in their lives.
Marissa Martinez, a 31-year-old Miami-based creative, found a pair of men’s Speedo board shorts—black with teal trim and a white drawstring—in a thrift store last summer. “I loved that they felt a little wrong,” she says. “I immediately started imagining a million different ways to wear them.” At the time, the trend had yet to blow up. “I remember posting a reel a couple months later wearing those shorts. It definitely got mixed reviews which, honestly, is kind of fuel to my fire,” though many of her followers have since come around. Martinez has also embraced Hawaiian floral prints, puka shell necklaces, even a board skirt, sourcing them from thrift stores, flea markets, and online resale sites. She styles rash guards with little slip skirts, board shorts with vintage tees.
And it’s not just the streets; surfer style has hit the runways, too. For his Spring 2026 menswear show, Dries Van Noten’s Julian Klausner tied beachy sarongs over trousers—and received a lot of attention for it. He pushed the idea further in his subsequent womenswear collection, leaning fully into surf style. His models wore knee-length, tropical printed board shorts paired with peplum-style tanks and bedazzled heels. He showed knit robes and singlets evocative of wetsuits in tropical color palettes.
Since then, the LA-based lifestyle brand Chan Luu has released a two-tone techno taffeta board short. It also sells floral sarong-style wrap skirts and colorful beaded necklaces. Luxury womenswear brand High Sport has reimagined their beloved pull on knit pant in a Hawaiian floral with a contrasting, eyelet-embellished faux tie and does something similar in a knee-length skirt.
Madelyn Somers founded Made Some, a compilation of the first syllables of her first and last names, in 2020, but the brand’s sport- and surf-inspired image really took shape in 2024. Made Some sells nylon board shorts—available in ultra short, knee-length, and trouser varieties—in cherry red, electric blue, and bright yellow. They make vintage-inspired, souvenir T-shirts touting the names of countries like Spain, Greece, and India with “sporty vintage graphics.” (Somers's background is in graphic design.) It’s “vacation style,” Somers explains, painting a verbal picture of someone pulling these items out of their suitcase on a trip to Athens. Perhaps they’re a little wrinkled because she threw them in still damp after a beach day. Something clicked—she has trouble keeping everything in stock, particularly those surf pants.
The lifestyle was in her blood; Somers grew up in a surfing household in “Dogtown,” a strip of Venice beach with a rich history of surf- and skate-induced counterculture. Her dad was a surfer, so surf competitions were always on TV and magazines like Thrasher littered their home. “It's such a vibe,” she says. “There's so much fashion inspiration that comes out of [surf and skate] subcultures.” She, however, doesn’t surf.
Somers came of age in the early aughts, when brands like Roxy and Billabong were at their apex. Blue Crush was a cultural phenomenon for teens, while tweens had Our Lips Our Sealed, starring Mary Kate and Ashley (as the Olsen twins were then known). Delia’s catalogues translated surf and skate style to a youthful audience. Naturally, it all seeped in. But Somers had no idea her timing would be so good.
“Surf culture is firmly back in the fashion conversation,” says Roxy’s global brand and general manager Danielle Mckenzie. McKenzie grew up among the surf culture of the Australian coastline. She has since lived on the coasts of both France and California and experienced similar phenomena. “In each place, surf culture extends far beyond the beach—it's a mindset that influences how people dress, travel, and express themselves.”
Surf style was simply functional clothes for surfers in Hawaii and the broader Polynesian region up until the middle of the 20th century. As the sport became more popular, specifically in California and Australia, the image of the surfing lifestyle reached a global stage—and brands got in on it. The big three surf brands, Rip Curl, Billabong, and Quiksilver, pulled elements from the lifestyle and casual dress—board shorts, jeans, t-shirts, and baggy sweaters—added a fashion spin, and sold them on a global stage. (Roxy came later in the 1990s as the first surf apparel brand marketed to women.) Surf style as we know it became a trend in the 70s, cycling in and out of style since, thanks in part to the marketing of that quintessential laissez-faire surfer spirit.
Today, McKenzie is capitalizing on the desirability of that lifestyle at Roxy once again. With a new collaboration with Parisian brand Miao, known for its signature corset, Roxy is courting a more fashion-oriented consumer. The capsule features Hawaiian print bikinis and second-skin, swim-inspired tanks, shorts, and skirts. “It felt like the perfect moment to revisit the world that ROXY created in the '90s and early 2000s and introduce it to a new generation,” says Mckenzie.
When conceiving the collection, the two brands looked to the 2008 book Surf Girl Roxy by Natalie Linden. “It captures a very specific moment in Roxy’s world—sun-faded, slightly raw, full of energy and attitude,” said Mckenzie. They also looked back at early styling codes like bikinis worn with loafers, unexpected print clashes. “That mix of beach pieces styled in a way that feels almost accidental but completely right,” she says. “At its core, there’s a thread of girlhood running through it all—not as nostalgia, but as a mindset that never really leaves you.”
Perhaps a “cowabunga dude,” come-what-may surfer mentality is exactly what we need right now. “It feels like people are gravitating toward clothing that reflects a lifestyle rather than just a trend,” says the founder of Miaou, Alexia Elkaim. “There's something really appealing about the ease, freedom, and optimism associated with surf culture.” The world is, in many respects, a bleak place at the moment. If board-short–induced, Blue-Crush-inspired escapism brings a little levity to your life, why not indulge?
