Spring ’17 Trends for O’Neill Men's and Women's
As O’Neill Clothing gears up for Spring ’17, we spoke with their team to learn what is on the docket for their Men’s and Women’s brands.
Danny Geary, VP of M&D, Men’s; Garth Tarlow, Marketing Director, Men’s; Rachael Hill, Design Director, Women’s; and Cedar Carter, Marketing Director, Women’s, shared what Spring has in store for O’Neill, including a new series and collaborations for boardshorts, a deeper connection between swim and sportswear for women’s, and where the brand’s focus will lie in its marketing efforts.
What’s new for Spring?
Rachael Hill: On the women’s side, back to the beach is the theme for 2017. We are continuing to focus on the power of the beach and the carefree California lifestyle. We believe that beach is the new boho. For Spring our design team traveled to Bali and that served as our point of inspiration for the collection.
It was such a magical place filled with beautiful patterns and colors. Traditional textiles such as batiking and ikat weaving were integrated into the line. Overall the casual “vacation” vibe was the perfect way to get in the mood for designing a line ideal for any beach destination.
Danny Geary: O’Neill’s premier boardshorts, the Hyperfreak Series, has undergone a design overhaul and feature upgrades for 2017. The Hyperfreak Hydro delivers the ultimate in performance and innovation. It features a minimalist constructed quick-dry waistband, 170% Hyperfreak Stretch — the most functional in the industry — along with O’Neill Hyperdry 2.0, the quickest drying treatment available.
Also exciting, the O’Neill Hybrid program has been revamped. As an adventure-influenced product story, O’Neill has also developed the O’Neill TRVLR series of Hybrids inspired by the outdoor and adventurous lifestyle.
We also continue to improve our signature Hybrid offering of Locked & Loaded. Locked & Loaded is a story of the classic hybrid short silhouette designed into custom and unique specialty fabrications. O’Neill invented the Hybrid short and continues to lead the market with innovative details such as zipper hand pockets and internal waistband drawstrings.
What is the most important product story for Spring?
Rachael Hill: Swim and sportswear are being designed together as one collection. Print and color stories are the same by delivery. Some colors brighten in swim to add a cool layering effect when merchandising with sportswear. This enables retailers to really tell a cohesive story, curating an entire look for the beach.
We also have designed our 365 Hybrid collection to tie back to the swim line. This will help to expand the assortment and really tailor the story.
We are seeing traction in the “fashion solids” in swim and are expanding into new bodies and interesting fabrications to breathe newness into this area. We still believe in “swimtimates” and the fact that you’re now wearing swim as a bra under low cut tanks and open back dresses. The bralette body has been really great.
In terms of sportswear we are seeing maxis making a comeback. Midis continue to be good. We are always challenging ourselves to evolve our prints and we have some great newness this season. Classic stripes are feeling fresh and right for our look. Wrap silhouettes are key in tops and dresses. Knit dressing is becoming more of a focus as well. Overall the focus is on easy dressing.
Danny Geary: Boardshorts, boardshorts, boardshorts!
O’Neill includes a special collaboration Hyperfreak with an up-and-coming artist out of Australia. Born and raised in Sydney, Brooklyn Whelan is one of Australia’s emerging contemporary artists. His style is heavily influenced by weather patterns and his days as of writing graffiti and futurism.
Within the 2017 Hyperfreak story, O’Neill launches the 24-7 series. The Hyperfreak 24-7 boardshorts features an internal cinch waistband closure and side-seam hand pockets featuring covered zipper closures and mesh lined pocket bags. As a unique design exclusive to O’Neill, the zippers deliver in-water functionality and on-land pocket security.
How will you market it?
Cedar Carter: On the women’s side the marketing will tell the back to the beach story with a “swept away to Bali” feel. We’re creating more specific content in certain areas such as our seasonal capsule collections, kids, and 365 activewear utilizing one of our long-time surf lifestyle ambassadors, Bree Kleintop.
Our focus is definitely continuing to shift from traditional media to a primarily digital strategy. We work closely with many influencers of all levels from athletes to fashion bloggers to our hand-selected group of social media influencers that we call O’Neill Style Muses.
We’ve had two big name designer collaborations the past couple years, so for 2017 we’re switching things up a bit and working with a close friend of the brand on a really special capsule collection. This will launch for Summer 2017, so we’ll fill you in on that soon.
Garth Tarlow: Hyperfreak will be marketed via an omni-channel strategy, with consistency through our various in-store, advertising, digital and social channels. The Hyperfreak Hydro will be the pinnacle style showcasing O’Neill’s Hyperdry 2.0, the quickest drying treatment available. Creative will focus on the technical features of the trunk accompanied by high performance, surf action photography.
What was the biggest hit of last season?
Rachael Hill: Dresses and wovens continued to be really strong for us. We also saw growth in Girls 7-14 and our capsule collections, leading us to expand and focus on these areas going forward.
Danny Geary: While we saw a solid increase in our Hyperfreak business, we also saw a great resurgence in our Superfreak category. With updates focusing on modern fits, lengths, innovation and updated color stories.
Anything else new with business?
Rachael Hill: We are very excited about introducing a toddler line. The collection has its own unique prints and colors that really set it apart and make it special. We wanted to have a point of difference from our Girls 7-14 line that continues to focus on giving her a more aged-up aestheic. The line is adorable.
Danny Geary: Our focus is on an omni-channel experience with the goal of creating consistency at all of our consumer touch points. Consistency in brand messaging is more important than ever with the new consumer shopping mindset.