Bruce Weber is Surfing’s Fashion Pioneer | From JJF to Slater + the day the Fletchers went crazy on a Volvo shoot

 

If you are not familiar with the name Bruce Weber you are definitely still familiar with his ground breaking photographers spanning decades of beautiful people. You probably also saw his recent VOGUE photoshoot with John John Florence, who he also shoot when he was a tiny grom living on the North Shore.

Bruce Weber has that history and credibility in the surf world even though he’s a fashion darling. Amongst his closest friends are the iconic Fletcher family and it goes back to others like Nat Young, Gerry Lopez, Shaun Tompson, and even the Duke!

 

 

Saturdays NYC magazine did up a very cool in-depth interview with Bruce about his roots in surfing. Who knew Gianni Versace loved Christian and Nathan Fletcher? Not so much for Volvo though. They couldn’t handle them on the set totally stoned and running amok.

“When I went back to bed that night, I knew it was going to be a disaster. We went to set the next morning and Christian was totally stoned! His eyes were blood red. Nathan’s hair seemed to have grown overnight. It was completely standing up—like he had been in an electrical fire or something. I’m trying to hide the fact that everyone is so stoned. Every time Dibi started saying something to the agency people, she’d start swearing at them, telling them off.”

 

On surfers:

“I think you always discover something when you look in the eyes of an adventurer—whether it’s a surfer or a person who climbs mountains. They defy incredible obstacles. Their eyes seem to have the same light as the sky. They’re almost translucent.”

 

On John John Florence:

“The way they lived was so idealized, so open and real, like something out of a movie. There was a lot of love in that house. It made you want to move in. The whole house had everything to do with surfing. Their mom was this beautiful woman, walking around in her cut-off shorts and bikini top. Even the old car looked like faded surf shorts to me. The kids drove it around the yard. They were such characters. Since they didn’t wear a lot of clothes, we thought we’d draw the clothes on them, suits and stuff.”

 

On Bruce Irons:

“ I like Bruce a lot. He’s real quiet. All of these crazy guys who you hear so many stories about—most of them are gentlemen. I try to photograph them in a straight-forward way. Bruce probably wouldn’t like to hear it, but he has movie-star good looks. It was a treat to hang with him and my camera.”

 

There’s more in there about Kelly Slater wanting the hottest models to put more clothes on, the Australians being banned from the North Shore, etc. Bruce has seen a shot a lot of surfings greatest moments.

 

Click over to SATURDAYS NYC Magazine for the full Bruce Weber fashion surf pioneer interview.

 

 

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