What makes the ideal swim short? Here at Short Motivation, we’d envisage a number of criteria, with the first being a tailored design, so you can wear the same pair of shorts into town as easily as you can by the hotel pool. We’d want our swim shorts to dry rapidly, be adjustable and look as stylish on their own as they would paired with a crisp linen shirt.
With the above in mind, we were pleased to find a brand with the same synergy and vision, combined with a powerful Summer 2017 “Art of the Sea” collection, utilising sharp colours and interesting prints. Look back at the Short Motivation social media and you’ll see we featured a number of shorts from this collection when shooting in the States through Summer 2017.
After shifting production from Portugal to New York, Prince & Bond is back with another striking release, in the form of a compelling Spring/Summer 2018 “Into the Tropics” collection.
The brand has been inspired by all the variables that make an ideal tropical vacation, including the serenity of repetitive ocean waves, lush scenery, exotic plants and endless sunshine. Think of year-round sun, ever-constant weather and a destination which rarely disappoints. Picture waking up with rays bursting through your window, keen to get on with your day and explore your surroundings
The colour palette for this collection captures the tranquillity of the ocean, including soft hues of blues and blue-greens. Inland, the vitality and contrasting sharpness of bold tropical Caribbean flora, including bright oranges and vibrant reds. Our favourite short from the new collection is the incredible Midnight Bloom which, of us, correctly sums up what Prince & Bond wanted to portray from their “Into the Tropics” theme.
In a departure from the majority of the industry, this latest collection was manufactured in New York, the hometown of Prince & Bond. We asked Nnamdi Chuks the advantages of moving production from Portugal and Nnamdi stated “moving production to the United States has offered us a unique hands-on advantage with production. It is also very important for us to meet production deadlines, which is a major concern that brands face especially in their early stages. Manufacturing in the garment district of New York City means we can visit to facilitate production and ensure that we meet the demands of our stockists”.
Interestingly, sourcing the usual European swimwear fabric was made more difficult within the United States, but this simply made Chuks more determined to locate the best fabric for men’s swimwear. The new season fabric is certainly a lot lighter, ideal for those hot summer months and a humid atmosphere, The lighter fabric also lends to easier movement and a quicker-drying finish. Nnamdi added, “we made sure that our fabric fits in with this season’s theme aesthetically and technically using a speciality polyester blend fabric with a semi-gloss finish to capture the vivaciousness of tropical foliage and a lighter weight fabric with breathability to ensure maximum comfort when the temperature rises in the tropics.”
We took a closer look at four shorts from the “Into the Tropics” collection.
Midnight Bloom
Blood Orange
Birds of Paradise
Shark Tooth II
This is a small selection of the wider Spring/Summer 2018 collection. Another highlight is the collaboration with the COMO Metropolitan in South Beach. This is an exclusive hand-painted design from New York-based artist Christina Chobot, the poppy colourful sketch of the hotel pool makes for a playful, lively interpretation of this famous destination. The COMO collaboration short will be available exclusively from the hotel store.
Head over to the Prince & Bond website to view the complete collection.
