Apparel company Quiksilver has brought back its local surfing style from the ’80s to one of Netflix’s original and most popular shows, “Stranger Things.”
As the sci-fi drama moved a few of its main characters to California, costume designer Amy Parris partnered with the brand’s product director, Andrew Henry, to build the show’s new coastal wardrobe.
“Netflix reached out to us to partner on this collaboration. We are fans of the show and thought there could be some interesting things we could do together,” Quiksilver’s Global General Manager Brad Blankinship told the Business Journal.
The collaboration adds another OC element to “Stranger Things,” which is now in season four. As of late May, nearly 300 million hours of the show’s latest season had been streamed, making it one of Netflix’s most-watched shows in its history.
The show is the creation of brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, who graduated from film school at Orange’s Chapman University in 2007.
Pulled From Archive
Clothing pieces were pulled from the Huntington Beach-based retailer’s archives, as Quiksilver worked with Netflix’s costume team for three years before the season premiere in June.
Founded in 1969, the retailer had kept numerous samples of products from the past 50 years and were able to reference various pieces from the early ’80s for inspiration.
“Quiksilver was a big part of creating the surfer inspired fashion of the ’80s so this was a perfect opportunity to recreate some of the epic styles from the iconic time in history,” Blankinship said.
The partnership allowed the brand to release its own apparel collection after the same designs the team had worked on for the show.
A five-part collection was released, inspired by not only Quiksilver’s own surfing styles and character outfits but also the dark themes of the show’s setting known as the Upside Down.
The five capsules were labeled as show references—the Upside Down, 1986, Surfer Boy Pizza, Lenora Hills Surf Club and Hellfire Surf Club.
Pieces from each collection range in price from $25 to $160 depending on the capsule and the character featured.
“The response to the collection has been great and it has been a lot of fun working with Netflix and doing marketing initiatives around the collaboration,” Blankinship said.
A Quiksilver concept store in Paris opened featuring the collaboration pieces, corresponding with the release of the first part of the collection on May 20. The Paris spot is the first of a few global pop-ups planned for the show’s fourth season release, according to officials.
Quiksilver is one brand under the umbrella of Boardriders Inc., a branded apparel and lifestyle retailer based in Huntington Beach. This portfolio includes Roxy, Billabong, DC Shoes and RVCA.
Boardriders reported 750 employees in OC out of 8,500 companywide on the Business Journal’s directory of local apparel companies last month.
Costa Mesa-based Vans is also set to release a collaboration with “Stranger Things” later this year.
The second part of Stranger Things season four debuts Friday, July 1.
