In the late ’80s and early ’90s, a brand was born from the Southern California surf scene and swept through the clothing landscape to redefine the look and ideology of casualwear. That brand was Stüssy, a label that grew organically from youth movements and inadvertently revolutionized the clothing business.

Shawn Stüssy was a surfer who used to shape his own boards for friends and locals in Laguna Beach, California. Stüssy began screening t-shirts and shorts to sell along with the surfboards as a form of promotion; his surname written in a graffiti-influenced hand style was to become the company logo. Stüssy inadvertently fell into the clothing business through his deep-rooted love of surfing, and in a few short years, people were talking within the small, insular world of surf and skateboarding in the late ‘80s. Shawn set up small showrooms in New York and California and hit the road, showing his designs to stores he respected.