Inside Beach Brains’ new collection Concrete Beach with designer Gareth Hemmings
Congratulations on your latest collection, Concrete Beach! Talk to us about your inspirations.
Thank you! Inspiration for Concrete Beach was drawn from the film Requiem for a Dream. A full clash of dirty, grungy city living set against these serene ocean and beach shots. We applied the energy found in this juxtaposition to the garment design – oversized, relaxed beach fits but made from pinstripe suiting, cotton poplins, wools, mohair…materials you would more likely see on Wall Street than down by the beach. We also designed a set for the campaign that references Harry (Jared Leto) and Marion’s (Jennifer Connelly) dark city apartment. If you have a look at the campaign imagery you will see the influence the film had.
From the campaign imagery to the silhouettes and colour palette, we definitely get a real ’90s grunge culture vibe. What draws you to this era of fashion?
It’s a time when the style was how your hair looked when you woke up and it hadn’t been washed for a week. When paint splatter, bleach marks or sun fade only added to your look. Your beat-up Chucks only got cooler the more you thrashed them. The deadbeats looked cool. The hierarchy of fashion was flipping. Skaters, broke artists, beach bums, and stoner bands were on top.
What’s the creative process of conceptualising a collection such as Concrete Beach?
There’s so much good imagery, music, films, and art getting thrown at you all the time now. I can’t remember a time when inspiration was so easy to come by. The hard part is narrowing your field of vision and setting a line. We pull together everything we’re in love with or have been excited about over the last few months, look for common elements or a hero moment (like a single film) and then build from there.
What’s your favourite piece and how are you wearing it?
The vests have been my favourite this season, so the Dead Beat Vest, Leather Bomber Vest and the Chunky Vest. I wear these with a thrashed long-sleeve tee, baggy boy pant, a wallet chain and a plaid shirt tied around my waist.
Beach Brains prides itself on making clothes that are built to last. What’s your driving force here?
We dream of seeing our Boxy tees or Zip jackets in the second-hand market in 30 years, only looking better and collecting character as they age. We don’t want you to have to replace your T-shirt every six months, so we make tees extra heavy with high-quality cotton. Rinse, repeat, and it will become more special and last through many hands.
Well-designed and fully thought-out unisex clothing is unfortunately still hard to come by. Why is it important for you to include unisex pieces in your collections?
The world is full of diverse bodies. We wouldn’t want someone to think they couldn’t wear a Beach Brains garment. We haven’t achieved our goal of accessibility yet but the learning that comes with designing unisex is helping us get there.
You’ve been picked up by some amazing international retailers. What are some goals you have for Beach Brains’ future now that you’ve cracked into the overseas market?
Thank you! It’s been exciting seeing the international response. We have many goals/plans for the year ahead. New York events, a London pop-up and a large-scale runway show. Beach Brains Worldwide, baby!
If you could pick one celebrity/high profile person to dress in a Beach Brains fit, who would it be and why?
It probably wouldn’t help with sales or brand exposure but if Ozzy Osbourne ever wore Beach Brains it would blow my mind. Listening to his music when I was younger and reading all the lyrics has been a major influence. So for a hero like him to wrap themselves in some Beach goods would be an unreal bucket list moment.
You hosted events in Auckland and Melbourne to celebrate the release of Concrete Beach. With so many brands shifting focus (and budgets) to digital marketing, what was the thinking behind this?
It allowed us to exhibit the range how we intended it to be viewed. To make our inspirations, influences and drivers clear to the audience and community. It was also an opportunity to pull people into the Beach Brains world who hadn’t been aware of the brand. Doing this with Subtype was epic. We had always admired their stores and the curation that went into them. The fit-outs are killer. So to be given the chance to make store-specific installations and performances was too exciting to pass up. The clean, minimalist aesthetic of the stores connected well with the original inspiration of Beach vs City.