As a person who spent some very happy times on the Atlantic coast in South West France back in the 1990s, seeing brands like Reef will always bring a smile to my (slightly wrinkly) face. It also makes me long for the days where I’d sit on the beach, sipping on a Pastis and Orangina whilst gazing out at the breakers, wishing I owned a surf-board and maybe even knew how to surf. Though despite my lack of hanging ten experience, I still fully embraced everything else about surf culture by wearing loads of Stussy, sporting long straggly hair, doing very little work and of course wearing Reef sandals (when I couldn’t get away with going barefoot). Though many things have changed since those salty, surfy days it’s nice to know that Reef are still proudly flying the flag for the hedonistic beach life. This season they’ve produced a range of ethical tee shirts, some sandals that look like the front cover of Surfer mag that you ‘pop out’ and wear and get this dudes and dudettes…. a pair of sandals that have a bottle opener built into the sole! If only we’d had these for our Kronenbourgs back in 1996, we’d have saved so many people’s teeth, countless table corners and one or two vital parts of historical statues.
Shop the Reef SS18 collection here.
