Introducing the W’menswear Spring/Summer‘23 collection titled, “Thriving on a challenge”.

This season we visit life after WWII, a culturally different world where women had entered the labor force, adventure sports, and new roles in the family structure. It was apparent that life was never going back to pre-war norms. Surfing, and the women who were a part of its post-war wave, really embodied this revolution.

During the war, male surfers were sent to the battlefield, and the jobs they left were filled by women for the first time. It was after the war that surfing transitioned from hobby to action sport, and as a whole became romanticized through advertising and the movie industry.

Enter stage Marge Calhoun and Wendy Wagner, two women in Hollywood who were a testament to the new era of women’s surfing. “I didn’t fight with anyone, I just maintained my focus and honed my talents”, said Marge in an interview with Terry Eselun in 2014.

Hollywood actress Wendy Wagner also worked as a stunt double, and was an avid surfer. “Wende was probably the first woman to take on the large swells at Hawaii’s North Shore” recalled John Elwell, friend, author and historian, “she could dive, spear fish and surf with the best of us”.

These exceptional women in Hollywood who thrived off the challenges that the post-WWII world has to offer, are inspiring examples women who paved the way for many more thereafter. Our Spring Summer ‘23 collection, born from their exceptional stories, attempts to honor their legacy.

Available now.