Hailey Bieber, pro surfer Kelia Moniz talk Roxy Sister line
Hailey Bieber and Kelia Moniz sat in the VIP offices of Palisades Village, fielding questions about their friendship hours ahead of a launch party for their new line from Roxy called Sister.
It’s an apt name for a four-season collection inspired by the pair’s friendship, which was evident as they did their rounds with press, sharing laughs as Bieber passed a cell phone to Moniz to show her a series of text messages the two then giggled about.
“We’re friends, but we’re a lot more than that and I think the next step of that is basically sisters,” Moniz said. “I don’t have a sister so I feel like a lot of the girls in my life become sisters.”
Moniz, who married one of Bieber’s friends, said that’s how the two met and they instantly bonded.
The deal with Roxy, which calls for four collections to be released across a two-year period, was celebrated at a launch party at the Little Beach House Malibu Tuesday evening.
The first season is a highly curated assortment, Roxy global general manager Emilie Souvras said, using pale pinks and grays mixed in with some metallics and white across 15 stockkeeping units.
The assortment is heavy on swim — one pieces and two pieces — in addition to graphic T-shirts. Mixed in with that, are more elevated items, including a long-line, blush-colored blazer and gauzy wide-leg pants.
“For me, with a bathing suit in general, it’s always [about] the fit and I feel like they nailed the fits of this collection,” Bieber said. “We have similar styles. I’m just a little taller so they look good on both [Baldwin and Moniz].”
“And we don’t like really itty bitty bottoms, so having a little more coverage. They’re very classy but flattering,” Moniz added.
The two also pointed to the cover-ups that could be used to style the swimsuits into looks for day or eveningwear, which, in some ways, was a bid to elevate and diversify the offering from the typical Roxy range, with future seasons expected to dabble a bit more in color and streetwear.
“It’s really tonal and super feminine,” Souvras said of the launch collection. “It’s a bit softer and a bit more mature than what you would see in the regular Roxy line.”
That’s the opportunity with Sister as the label makes moves to continue growing its business outside of the core surf market, where Roxy was born out of.
“We really believe what we’ll be able to achieve with this line is to speak to a mainstream consumer,” Souvras said. “One-hundred percent the core is obviously what matters to us, but we believe the opportunities are huge outside of the core market. Surf, at large is super aspirational for the non-core consumer.”
As the industry has largely been focusing much of its efforts and sku’s on streetwear, Roxy has kept its head down to continue pushing its brand around swim, Souvras said.
“Our focus has really been on swim and, quite frankly, we’ve been doing a great job with our swim business over the past two years. We’ve been able to grow the swim business significantly pretty much in all the regions. So while many brands were focusing on high-street, urban trends, we were focusing on what we do well: beachwear and mountainwear. Even though the trends were super urban, the girls still go to the beach.”
