Lightning Bolt Hangs Ten in Manhattan
Surfs up for Lightning Bolt, the relaunched surf and swimwear line that is finding that surf lovers don’t necessarily live by the ocean. They reside in Manhattan too.
Lightning Bolt USA, now based on the edge of the Pacific Ocean in Venice, Calif., plans to open a pop-up store Nov. 1 inside the relatively new Saturdays Surf Shop at 31 Crosby St. in SoHo. A big shindig is planned for 6 p.m. on Nov. 3 when Jonathan Paskowitz, the company’s president, will hold forth and showcase the expanded Spring/Summer 2010 collection for men and women, talking about how the brand was resurrected after nearly 30 years in the bone yard. The pop-up store should be open for about one month.
But let’s be frank. New York isn’t the surfing capital of the United States. Los Angeles has its fair share of wave riders too. So Lightning Bolt is hoping to open a pop-up store in mid-November in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles.
Lightning Bolt was founded in 1971 in Hawaii by surf aficionados Gerry Lopez, Rory Russell and Jack Shipley but petered out after riding a wave of popularity for about 10 years.
Portuguese textile company TMG-SA and Paskowitz partnered to relaunch the brand in the United States last year after seeing some success in Europe.
The line of board shorts, swimwear, rompers, tops and camis is designed by Kara “Kake” Smith, who is mixing her own color palette and taking a few design cues from the 1970s. Think men’s board shorts that are a tad shorter and not so baggy. Sounds good.
