First of all, this is the best damn hangtag I ever did see, and if you buy a piece of the Serena Mitnik-Miller collaboration with QSW you can have your very own hangtag (for free!).  I know, for some, it’s just a little piece of paper…but for me, it’s a beautiful little painting with texture, color and poetry…just like this collaboration!  I walked around the studio with one of them attached to the belt loop of my jeans for a week…yes, I really did.

I’m not sure what can be said about our collaboration with Serena Mitnik-Miller that has not already been told.  Ultimately the product speaks louder than the words, but I must mention that this has been the dream collaboration.  Originally I was just hoping to bring Serena’s amazing taste level and signature watercolor aesthetic into the collection, but over the last year and a half (we first met in early 2010 at her shop, the General store, in San Francisco), Serena and I have bonded over quite a similar love of all things vintage, artisanal and hand crafted.  I see her almost every month scouring the isles at the Rose Bowl flea market and we’ve been hanging out at her new communal construction site tucked back into Topanga canyon.  We’ve even managed to sneak in a surf at Malibu a couple weekends back!  Bottom line, we’re buddies now.  And even though I told her I would never show anyone all my iphone pics behind the scenes at her studio, I feel confident enough that she’ll still talk to me after this blog post (fingers crossed)!

The above was the original mood-board that inspired our QSW designers, Annika & Megan, as we kicked off this design process.  This collage is a combination of vintage clothing we pulled out of Serena’s closet, tears from magazines, images from the General Store and the Outer Sunset neighborhood and Serena’s original paintings she did specifically for this collaboration.

And here are a few of my favorite items…I have Serena’s print of the 100% silk Petal Paisley dress that inspired it next to me in my studio so it’s definitely a favorite!!!  The Sea of waves tee is one of those pieces I made Serena do ’cause I know people love this signature style of hers!  The Neighborhood cardigan is a complicated jacquard sweater pattern that was inspired by Serena’s colorful reclaimed, wooden, hand-painted blocks, which I have on my desk. The Arrow tee is also a classic ’cause Serena’s little geometric geodes remind me of the “reverse-stop-play” buttons on an analog cassette deck – remember those?  And last but not least, is the silk chiffon Diamond dress.  There is a very small lurex yarn running through this featherweight fabric that creates just a little glisten of light within Serena’s hand-painted diamonds.  Sort of like the energy emanating from the new pieces of artwork she sends us every season.  Snatch the above while you still can, and get ready for some more Serena / QSW love in seasons to come!

When we were first given the keys to the Quiksilver Women’s collection our first order of duty was to re-imagine the conceptual vision for the line. Like a good friend, we started by adopting the long-standing nickname of QSW. We knew it was imporant to maintain the young contemporary positioning and sophistication in terms of design and fabrication, but at the same time, we wanted to connect QSW more closely to Quiksilver’s roots and tell authentic coastal stories.

It was around this same time that I had been introduced to Serena Mitnik-Miller’s translucent watercolor paintings through a friend’s blog. After stalking her by email, phone, mutual freinds, and even sending a “scout: to San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood to find her, we arranged a meeting. I flew up to see her latest creation, the General Store on Judah Street, which she built by hand with her husband Mason; a store filled with beautiful craft, eclectic books, and new and vintage clothing that Serena personally buys from friends, creates with her own hands, or finds in the local flea-markets. I knew I had found the perfect collaborator for our inaugural collection.

After countless trips back up to the Outer Sunset to get to know Serena and her crafts, we dug into her closet for inspiration and her studio for prints and patterns. We borrowed her favorite vintage pieces and re-imagined them for our Autumn collection and instead of borrowing artwork that Serena had already created, she demanded on creating brand new pieces for Quiksilver and QSW. We also uncovered some vintage treasures around her house and studio that would become inspiration for the thoughtful details that define the collections: the perfect zipper, hand-made paper, and nautical rope to name a few. Clearly we had found more than an artist; we had found a muse and curator.

by John Moore, head designer

Check out the latest interview with Serena Mitnik-Miller on Nylonmag.com . Here, she discusses the collaboration with Quiksilver and why it was such a natural fit!

To check out the full article click here!

John Moore discusses Quiksilvers design inspiration for the Autumn 2011 collection.

Anyone who knows me well has to endure my “pocket documentation” of literally every phase of the creative process with my iPhone.  I think I started this before the Apple kids from Capitola got me to fork out a few hundred bucks every year to stay connected, but it has sure become a lot easier since.  This means two things…

1. My images are usually blurry (my sincere apologies…although the new iPhone 4 is getting better and better)

2. And I have a stockpile of thousands of images of every creative journey I have taken in the last three years.

So the later will come in handy for my Quiksilver posts.  It’s tricky blogging about real-time fashion, when the design process is actually already a year-and-a-half ahead.  I’m working on Autumn’12 and we haven’t even delivered Autumn ’11. So I’ll use this blog forum to continually look back on the creative sparks, inspiring events and “beachie” brainstorms that led up to the current season you should be rushing to your local surf shop to snatch up.  So let’s start with the events of Feb, 10^th 2010 at the Laguna Surfing Heritage Museum. Looking back, this is probably the single most influential spark in the direction of our creative process for Quiksilver.  We had the mind-blowing pleasure of listening to Simon Buttonshaw relay, in his own words, the creation and history of Quiksilver.  Simon doesn’t like labels or titles, but let’s just say that he was “there” on day one, and today he’s the artistic epicenter of the brand and a constant source of inspiration and guidance.

Throughout the colorful dialogue, Simon used Quiksilver’s boardshorts to illustrate the different artistic phases in Quiksilver’s heritage from day one in 1969. We literally looked at the earliest canvas styles that the surfing heritage museum had collected all the way through to present day…decades of original art, product innovation and genuine soul.  The best words Simon spoke on this day were…”“THE ART WAS OK…WHAT WAS REALLY IMPORTANT WAS DESIGN INNOVATION, NOT DECORATION…DECORATION IS THE DEVIL”   Finer words never spoken…and this quote adorns the opening spread of our original Quiksilver concept book.

Simon talking shop on Feb 10th, 2010 at the Laguna Surfing Heritage Museum. (This is my George Greenough moment)

A few of the days distinguished “guests”

Simon Buttonshaw at the 1970 World Titles, Bells Beach

Remember when we first met? We warned you back then of the randomness of things that we get inspired by. More often than not, its non-fashion ideas and images that get the wheels turning the fastest … there’s nothing like seeing someone else doing something incredible to kick start the creative process. And then, just like magic, these tidbits somehow get spun into some new design that you might be wearing now — or next year. Music and dance are two biggies for us in QSW design — both are forms of expression that are so pure and direct at communicating a feeling, idea, or moment. And its just cool to see others out there making things happen, pushing forward, motivating, innovating, and evolving.
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Amazing.
Oh, and if you haven’t checked out the TED Talks series, go now — ideas worth spreading for real.