At the beach we are present, alive, in a way we rarely are anywhere else. It is a place of sanctuary. Outside, a rocket charges into space; markets rise and fall; the business of the world rattles along. But here there is only sun, sand and the rhythm of the surf. It is this feeling of escape, of clarity and calm, that we have celebrated with our Gone Surfin’ collection, an exclusive capsule of summer-ready garments from 17 of the most iconic names in surf wear, including Noon Goons, ahnah, Peyote Bird, as well as all those listed below. 

Whether you’re a surf pro, a devout sun-worshipper or just a happy day-tripper in search of some sand and a seaside taco stand, our surf-inspired collection is an invitation to celebrate the ocean and swim shorts lifestyle. We’ll be back all week with little vacations for your eyes and mind, odes to surf style, and a beachy way of life. In the meantime, let’s see who’s in the line-up.

A good place to start is Go Barefoot – a sentiment we can get behind. Formally established in 1957 (though its roots go back nearly a dozen years prior), and named for the famed Barefoot Bar in Waikiki, the buzzing beachside neighbourhood of Honolulu, Go Barefoot has been the gold standard of jazzy tropical-printed vacation garments for more than 60 years.

As the brand vice president Mr Craig Hara says of his father Mr Clarence Hara, who, with his mother, Ms Alice Sumiko Hara, started the brand the year Mr Hara was born, “My dad grew up on the beaches in Hawaii and hung out with his beach boy friends in the 1930s and 1940s and they all knew [legendary surfers] Duke Kahanamoku and Robert “Rabbit” Kekai – so this culture and lifestyle was ingrained in me along with this incredible respect for our island heritage.”

Alongside its proud heritage, Go Barefoot’s shirts and shorts are inspiring too: their flora and fauna make us dream of exotic travel in far-flung locations. Make it a goal on your next outing to find yourself in a place where the flora and fauna match your beachwear – but with prints like these you don’t need to go beyond your backyard barbecue to feel like you are a million miles away from it all.

Maybe the most famous maker of the aloha shirt, Reyn Spooner, begun at the same time as Go Barefoot, is probably best known for its washed-out prints (shirts are made inside out, with the prints on the reverse side for the sun-faded look) and an Oxford shirt-style construction.

This more relaxed camp-collar shirt, exclusive to MR PORTER, is a very modern staple, done in an underwater print called “Deep Sea Jive”, which Reyn Spooner’s creative director Mr Doug Burkman describes as having been inspired by “Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, mid-century Japanese toys and the fine artistry at Reyn Spooner – where all artwork begins with paper, pencil, paint and paintbrush.” And maybe it is that analogue kind of creation, or the faded tones, but these pieces certainly conjure the hazy countercultural surf scene captured so well in The Endless Summer.  

There weren’t any bucket hats in that greatest of all surf films by Mr Bruce Brown, but maybe there should’ve been. The bucket is really the perfect beach hat, giving a little coverage all over the place, and it fits so snuggly in with the kind of late 1960s psychedelic colours and prints we want to wear to the beach. No surprise this version by our pals at Saturdays NYC is perfect – the brand’s founders and owners are surfers themselves, and they really get beachwear right.

“We’re surfers, but we also live and work within the complexities of New York City,” say Saturdays NYC co-founders Messrs Morgan Collett and Colin Tunstall, “so the clothes we wear tend to reflect that dichotomy. During the time we were designing this collection – coach jackets, premium fleece, pared-back board shorts and camp-collared shirts that are easy-wearing enough to take between the office, the beach and then back to city for dinner with friends – we were also working on a surf book of New Jersey Surf Culture between 1888 and 1983. The silhouettes, colours and even typography – especially from the 1970s – were a point of inspiration.”

Another New York-based brand, and shop-turned surf-community, Pilgrim Surf + Supply has joined in this capsule with a collection inspired, according to founder Mr Chris Gentile, “by a movement in architecture in the 1950s called Tropical Modernism, particularly Vladimir Ossipoff in Hawaii, Paul Rudolph on the Gulf Coast of Florida and Minnette de Silva in Sri Lanka.”

As Mr Gentile says, “The surfers we think about when we design our collection don’t want to wear ‘I’m a surfer’ on their sleeve. In our approach, we like to take inspiration and influence from disparate aspects of culture and ‘introduce’ it, so to speak, to surfing. We design and make clothes that will be reliable. Just like a good surfboard, we want our customers to use our garments all the time, repair and reuse them for a lifetime.”

These colour-blocked trunks from Pilgrim, below – and the wavy Saturdays NYC swim shorts above – have a board-short appeal but with a more modern cut, making them ideal for a day in the sand as well as a scoot around town to the nearest lobster shack.

The great, luxe basics from James Perse are already known for their wearability – the best way for Angelenos to dress up their casual costume of T-shirts and shorts, or just go straight from Surfrider to Nobu. And these pieces, exclusive to the Gone Surfin’ collection – tie-dyed combed-cotton shirts and supima cotton sweats for supreme comfort, as well as a striped linen poncho you can imagine Mr Patrick Swayze’s Bodhi wearing to a beach bonfire in Point Break – really turn that up a notch because we are here to chill to the max, after all.

The godly cosiness of The Elder Statesman’s rightly famous cashmere pieces, too, are the closest clothing can get to a vacation in itself. The LA-based brand has always had a bit of a tune-in-and-drop-out vibe to their hoodies, their shorts and tees, and these wacky boomslang-tie-dyed shirts and shorts (with a touch of cotton in them to make the slouchy cashmere more wearable by the beach), inspired by and designed in collaboration with surf brand Deepest Reaches, are done in a rainbow sherbet colourway that’ll pair well with your suntan, or make up for your lack of one.

Begun in Ocean Park, San Francisco in 2005 as a surf shop, art gallery, hangout spot and all around community hub, Mollusk has grown into one of the best beachy brands around making T-shirts, trunks and casual trousers that transport you to the beach even if you can’t make it there. The ikat Jeffrey pants, woven by artisans in India from hand-dyed yarn are emblematic of the brand’s signature ethic: “Make it wearable, make it inspirational, make it to last!”

See how well they pair here with the soft flannel from the sustainable brand Outerknown – founded by the greatest surfer of all time, Mr Kelly Slater, and designer Mr John Moore. As Mr Moore says, the Outerknown collection made exclusively for MR PORTER is inspired, in part, by the visual archive of surfer and filmmaker Mr Bruce Brown, to which they had just been given access – and also by the man himself.

“There’s a famous image from The Endless Summer with Bruce Brown and the two stars of the film, Robert August and Mike Hynson, that has always been a great influence to me. They were at LAX in front of the United Airlines counter about to fly across the world, and they were all wearing suits. It was a privilege to fly in an aeroplane back then, and they were fully aware that all three of them were global ambassadors for the sport of surfing and they dressed accordingly.

This sense of style, in and out of the water, has always stuck with me and has been a big influence for everything we do at Outerknown. You can still be cool and relaxed, but wear clothing that feels great, fits flawlessly and was made with the highest regard for the planet!” This guy pictured above is so cool and relaxed, and he isn’t even riding a skateboard; he’s just coasting on the flawlessness of his clothes.

Created in 2013 by twin brothers Messrs Alex and Mike Faherty, who grew up surfing in New Jersey, the sustainable brand Faherty aims to feel as good on your skin as it does on your conscience. The brothers and Mr Alex Faherty’s wife Ms Kerry Faherty, who oversees the mission of sustainability at the brand, pride themselves on the comforting quality of their fabrics – and this striped Baja sweater packs in all the warmth of the beach in a single sweater.

“We place an emphasis on super high quality, easy to wear, taking you from the beach to wherever else you want to be,” says Mr Mike Faherty, the brand’s chief creative officer. “You’ll see references of Japanese woodblock technique, bright and happy Hawaiian prints rolling through, surf stripes straight from vintage Californian wardrobes and, of course, the tie-dye, which is so relevant right now, but perfectly iconic to the 1960s flavour, too.”

The great Birdwell, founded by Ms Carrie Birdwell Mann, with a pair of two-ply nylon surf trunks (or “beach britches”) made on a sewing machine in her craftsman cottage in 1961, still makes some of the best shorts and basics around (and “Quality is our gimmick” is still the motto). The cord shorts and terry polo, made exclusively for our Gone Surfin’ collection, look as good now as they did on the Newport Beach Lifeguards who wore them in 1961.

As Mr Brett Reynolds, the brand’s president and head of product says, “We dove into our archives… to reinterpret the original board shorts, cord shorts, competition jacket and Baja hoodie, purpose-built for making the most of days spent in the sun, sand and saltwater.”