The Secret Style Guru Behind Kelly Slater’s Outerknown

If you’ve been around long enough then you’ve seen brands undergo drastic changes at the mercy of private equity acquisitions, core status that was hard-earned can erase overnight when cherished team riders are let go or when authentic surf shops are replaced with box store accounts. As a customer, that can leave you wondering if that big logo still represents what it once did. 

While Kelly is clearly the driving spirit of Outerknown, John Moore embodies the soul of the brand through thoughtful, timeless design. Whether it is their best-selling blanket shirt, the easy going utility pants, or any of their women’s pieces, the overall feeling is one of effortless style. 

SURFER: In the realm of fashion and apparel today, Outerknown sticks out as going against the grain of fast fashion and more into our traditional connection with clothing and goods. For instance, indigenous peoples craft with the utmost intention and care–from the collecting of materials to the actual fabrication–and this continues into the life of the object. The Ashaninka people of the Brazilian Amazon believe the more we have physical contact with something, be it clothing or crafted jewelry, the more we imbue our spirits and the pieces become talismans. Does that resonate with your approach to design?
John Moore: Our design conversations are always about making things with great intent and purpose, and I often reference the inherent soul of an idea - meaning there’s more than just what you see.  And it’s really important to me to build items that get better with time, which is why I always prefer materials that you can feel on your body because of the weight (either gutsy or extremely light) and prefer surface textures that mask the bumps and bruises of the road. I never like to be precious with clothes – even dressier items.  I also rarely wash my favorite pieces, and wear the same things constantly. If something works and feels good when I wear it, I keep going back. So this Ashaninka theory of becoming one with something really resonates. The more you invest in something, the more you care about it.

SURFER: Instead of succombing to trends, it feels like the mission is to create clothes that won’t go out of style. I’m curious as to how do you stay the course when there is so much variance and noise that comes from the rest of the space? Like, how does one hold a brand without forcing it on people with big logos and reacting to trends? 
John Moore: Our references come from so many places, but how we translate them is what matters. A belief within the brand is to create without an expiration date. Everyone loves a new drop,  but it shouldn’t be obsolete after a season. Some of my favorite articles of clothes I’ve had for 25 years or more. A favorite jean jacket. A sweater. A couple pairs of jeans. They are really important to me. And when I’m traveling, I pack extremely light, and only what I can carry on, so I bring the clothes I feel best in. And that’s how I think about design at Outerknown - what are we adding to a lifetime of favorites? What are those pieces that you’ll always pack because they make you feel like the best version of yourself, regardless of your destination? I love seeing Outerknown products in the wild when you can tell the person wearing it has really made it their own. 

The process of designing this way is very much about discovery. Trying different things to get it right. The right balance of form, function, and details. Eliminating elements until you find the purest and easiest version of something is what I really enjoy.  There are times when a logo is more prominent, and times when the end-result is cleaner.  The result I prefer is when the branding becomes one with the design. We tend to be quite minimalistic in our approach at Outerknown - choose great materials, keep things simple, and focus on great quality.

SURFER: Whether they’re from the past or present, who are your style icons?
John Moore:  My list of influences are random and varied, the notable and nameless - musicians, writers, surfers, actors, activists, athletes, and artists over the decades of my lifetime, and many more that came before.  But it’s more about the picture, than the person.   Sometimes it’s a single image of someone I don’t even know – even a found photograph or vintage postcard, and I make up a story in my head. Not always sure what it is, but there’s something about the image that connects with me.  Maybe a color, a specific item of clothing, or the mystery or beauty of the location the image was taken. 

There’s an Outerknown photo of Dean Petty by Zak Bush in Nova Scotia that we shot for our first collection in 2015, where Dean looks like a young Paul Newman, and to me that one image, still tells me everything I need to know about Outerknown.  There are countless images of Kelly across all of his eras that we reference often, and there's a photograph of Tom Blake on the beach in Santa Monica in 1924 wearing a sweatshirt and chinos that’s so timeless it could be yesterday. I didn’t know Rell Sun, but her smile in photographs reminds me of the stories I’ve heard of her,  and there’s a shot of her on the beach in a flannel that has always been on my wall.

There's some classic surf images like Button’s throwing the peace sign by Jeff Divine, and a shot by Art Brewer in Newport in the 70’s that inspired the shot of Kelly wearing SEA JEANS at Teahupo’o by Tim McKenna a few years back. There’s also a shot of Shaun Tomson & Rusty Preisendorfer in the shaping bay in the early 80’s that planted the idea of the Big Heavy Tee into my head.

Another photo of Tom Adler in his Santa Barbara home comes to mind, or Hugh Holland photos of the ZBoys in the 70s. There are even some recent black & white shots of Lisa Anderson she put on Instagram that really moved me.  I love seeing someone in their truest form, like Marvin Gaye in his red beanie at the Piano in 1973 or Cher in her bluejeans in 1976.  Also love the unexpected evolutions of humanity before the icons were icons, like a young Obama smoking in college, or legends at the end of a lifetime like Georgia O’Keeffe at home in Santa Fe.  I often think in pictures and they’re all on my head, on my walls, in digital files, and they often make their way onto mood boards for projects and collections across the years. There are images that capture a person, time, and a place so well, and then others that are hard to place, so the imagination soars.

We'll be back with another edition of Coastal Style, only this time it'll be a very different look (hint hint, they're based in NYC).