LMC SS14 lb_lr

Spr i ng / Su m m er 2014
pat i ence

s / s
14

In collaboration with
WAX Magazine

On Patience

When Levi’s® Made and Crafted™ first approached us to collaborate on a publication that would tell the story of their Spring / Summer 2014 collection, we were
thrilled to envision how the experience of urban surfing and creative practice
(the topics of our own magazine) might intersect with finely made clothing. We
looked to the clothes for inspiration and were struck by the attention to detail
and craftsmanship found there. These things, which take both time and care to
develop, ultimately led us to the theme of this publication. After all, aren’t details
simply a physical manifestation of the word patience?

We, at WAX Magazine, know a few things about patience. As New York surfers, we practice it regularly. We wait for trains. We wait for elevators. We wait for
swell. But all that practice doesn’t make it easy. Everyone struggles with the idea
of patience (even those of us reluctant to admit this out loud). Waiting, going slow,
taking your time, doing things right — these can all be extremely difficult. But,
like all challenges, there is a payoff in the end, if only you have the persistence
to let it come to you. Come it does, in many forms: a hard-earned solo session,
the crafting of a beautiful object, the construction of a well-made garment.

What you have in your hands is the result of our collaboration: a lookbook
(with an editorial voice); a magazine (inspired by an iconic brand). It is equal
parts WAX Magazine and Levi’s® Made and Crafted™, designed to celebrate the
clothing, the people who wear it, the pursuits they enjoy and the time it takes to
reach a place of excellence. After all, as the saying goes, good things take time.
Sincerely,
Aeriel, David, Zak (Founders, WAX Magazine)

Creative Directors

Contributors

Levi’s ® Art directors

Aeriel Brown
David Yun
Zak Klauck

Andy Byers
Abbye Churchill
Jeff DiNunzio
Rob Kulisek
Jeremy Liebman
John Luke
Pavla Nešverová
Jason Walker
Carmen Winant

Matt Wright
Parul Sharma

Contributing
editor
Abbye Churchill

About the patterns
in this publication
Pavla Nešverová is a former
organist-turned artist. A
Czech native, her work

has appeared at numerous
galleries throughout Europe.
To create the patterns,
Nešverová took scenes from
two classic surf films —The
Fantastic Plastic Machine
(1969) and Sea of Joy (1971) —
and manipulated them in
the program Max (a visual
programming language for
sound and video).

WAX Magazine is a bi-annual print publication exploring the intersection of art, culture and surfing in and around New York City. Each
issue shares the stories of area surfers, artists, designers, authors and auteurs — all organized around a unique theme. www.readwax.com
One hundred and forty years ago, Levi Strauss invented a simple blue jean that would forever change the way America, and the rest of the
world, dressed. Levi’s® Made and Crafted™ builds on this legacy by designing tomorrow’s classics using today’s best materials and construction techniques. www.levismadeandcrafted.com

Introduction

From Sky to Sea
WAX Magazine spoke with two
of Levi’s ® Made and Crafted ™
designers, MILES JOHNSON and
AYLIN BEYCE, about their process
and inspiration for the Spring /
Summer 2014 collection.
WAX
The inspiration for the collection
came from the word surf and the
phrase, “where the sky and the ocean
meet.” How did the design team arrive
on this concept?
Aylin
Surf is such a wonderful jumping
off point, isn’t it? It’s a word that
immediately creates an impression,
yet it’s still loose and lends itself to
interpretation — there are so few
words like that. You can go in so many
directions. We were all very interested
in things like the hypnotic pull of
the moon on the earth or the tides
or the texture of sand. Interpreting
surf this way felt very fresh. This is
how the phrase came about.
WAX
How do the designers, as a team,
follow through on a concept like this
from idea to final product?
Aylin
We start by collecting images that
define the phrase in our minds. In
this instance, we pulled images of the
horizon, moon charts, tide charts…
MILES
Then, we started thinking about
how to incorporate our impressions
into the clothes. For instance, we
started thinking about techniques
like salt-washing or wind-drying or
incorporating reflective or iridescent
patterns.
Aylin
For the fabrics, we looked to light,
playful colors one might see at the
beach — corals, aquas or ‘sun’ yellow.
We balanced those more vibrant

Contents

colors with a pallete of silver grey,
white and shades of indigo.

daydreaming about the beach while
running around the city.

WAX
Are there specific pieces that stand
out for you as being particularly
representative of sand, surf or sky?

MILES
The clothes are fun and sophisticated.
The clothes are just as easy to wear
off the sand as on it.

I

6 ikey L isa
M
by Abbye Churchill

18 n T h e sky
I
by Jeremy Liebman

24 i r s t Wav e
F
by John Luke

II

36 n t e r lu de
I
by Rob Kulisek

38
Walking Rockaway
by Rob Kulisek
with Jason Walker

52
Sand S hor es
by Jeremy Liebman

62 econd wav e
S
by John Luke

III

82 T u r ning Tides
by Carmen Winant

WAX
When you design, who do you see in
these clothes?

86 T ry, T ry, T ry Ag ain
by Jeff DiNunzio

94 ky M ee t s S ea
S
by Jeremy Liebman

Aylin
The collection is versatile. It can
be worn to the beach or, when just

102 h i r d wav e
t
by John Luke

MILES
Almost all of the pieces have a
strong link back to the story, but I
particularly like the sun fade effects
we’ve done and the dry-textured,
handmade feel to some of the fabrics.
Aylin
The theme naturally lends itself to
a lot of visual expressions. You’ll
notice that all of the graphics in
the collection reflect waves or the
gradients of the horizon. The denim
trucker jackets, for example, were
constructed with different shades of
blue to create an indigo tidal gradient.
We also spent a lot of time thinking
about about how the various fabrics
might react to the elements found at
the beach. We asked ourselves, ‘What
happens to denim in the sun, sand
and saltwater? What elements does
fabric let in, what elements does it
protect us from?’ We let these questions guide both our washes and how
we constructed the clothing.
WAX
It’s funny you should mention the
gradated patterns and lines. They
are some of our favorite details in
the collection. Can you talk about
how they came about? What inspired
them?
MILES
The gradated pattern and line graphics
really summarize the collection. They
are — quite literally — our visual
interpretation of where the sea meets
the sky.

2

Listening

Watching

Waiting

3

Patience

Mikey Lisa

Mikey Lisa

talking style, surf
and the art of
filmmaking while
waiting for swell in
Montauk.
Photography by Rob Kulisek / Interview by Abbye Churchill

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7

Patience

Mikey Lisa

Mikey DeTemple wasn’t always so enamored with surfing. Growing up
on Long Island, and raised by a surfing family, the sport was always
in DeTemple’s consciousness, it just wasn’t something he participated
in. But that all changed when he turned twelve. Today, he’s a pro surfer
with numerous titles and the owner of a film production company, High
Seas Films, which explores the luscious imagery and exotic locales of
the sport. DeTemple has, very firmly, made surfing his way of life.
DeTemple proudly calls New York his home. Well, his two homes, to
be exact. To satisfy his waterfront habit, DeTemple and his girlfriend,
Lisa Myers share a cozy place in Montauk, right in the heart of the Long
Island surfing community. And, to satiate Myers’s lifelong passion for
fashion (she is currently at Stella McCartney; previously at Lanvin), the
dynamic couple share a second home in Brooklyn. It is a balancing
act to be certain — between city and country life, between fashion, film
and the surfing lifestyle — but one which both have embraced with
open arms.

Abbye:
How do you negotiate those two worlds?

Abbye Churchill:
With homes in Brooklyn and Montauk, how do you
divide your time?

Lisa:
It’s difficult because I want to be out there so much.
I’m constantly thinking about being out being there,
looking at the surf report. When I have my days off
out there, I have Mikey waking me up at six in the
morning. I can’t wait one second.

Mikey DeTemple:
Lisa’s always out here [in Montauk] on her days
off. During the warmer months, I’m pretty much
in Montauk full time. In the wintertime, the waves
dictate when I’m out here because it’s pretty boring
if there aren’t waves.

Abbye:
Mikey, going back in time, how did you first discover surfing? I read that when you were little, you
preferred going to the beach but you didn’t want to
get in the water. What was the “ah ha” moment for
you when it all came together?

Abbye:
It must be nice to have a sense of the city life and
then this bucolic escape.
Mikey:
Oh, it’s the best. Doing what I do would be pretty
difficult if I wasn’t able to mix the two.

Mikey:
The beach has always been a part of my life. My
parents met surfing in New York in the ’70s. I grew
up going to the beach but I hated the water. It was
always a terrifying thing to me. I used to spend a
lot of time with my mom at the beach. She got me
to let go of the fear and go out on my own. I would
boogie board every day, all day long; my dad would

Lisa Myers:
I love going out to Montauk. It lets me do what I want
to do in life. Before, I was actually thinking of leaving New York in general because I just wasn’t happy.
I lost my purpose. Having surfing and Montauk in
my life is so much healthier.

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9

Patience

Mikey Lisa
haze me for it. “I can’t believe you’re boogie boarding. Why don’t you just stand up?” Then I found his
first surfboard in our garage. I thought, ‘I would
feel pretty cool bringing this thing to the beach.’ I
never touched the boogie board again after that.

about what I did alone, but about the trips that I
went on and who I went on them with and what
we did together. And, that was how my first film,
Picaresque, was made.
Abbye:
You shot your first film, Picaresque, on 16mm film
and then your follow up, Sight Sound on a combination of film and digital. How do you like working
with both formats?

Abbye:
Were there any pieces of advice that your parents,
as veteran surfers, passed along to you?
Mikey:
My dad always instilled in me how important style
was with surfing. There was a point where I was
trying to win everything I could win and he was like,
“Whatever you do, don’t lose your style.” That was
something that really stayed with me throughout my
entire surfing career and beyond: the importance
of style. That’s translated to everything, I think.

Mikey:
Visually, I love the feeling that film gives. But now
I’m a fan of digital, too. There’s no way I’d be able to
make these shorts [I’ve been doing] if I were shooting them on film unless I was getting thousands
of dollars every time. Digital lets me actually do
stuff, while keeping the cost low and still making
beautiful images.

Abbye:
Lisa, has Mikey given you any nuggets of wisdom
to help with your surfing?

Abbye:
Lisa, have you gotten the bug? Have you gotten any
desire to begin making films from watching Mikey
work?

Lisa:
In the beginning, he would try and push me to
go out when the waves were a little bigger than I
was comfortable with. He was like, ‘This is how
you learn.’ The waves weren’t big for him, but big
by my standards. I prefer to go out when it’s my
baby waves because I can pay more attention to my
technique. Now, I’m selective about when I go out,
what the day’s like. Every time I go out I feel like
I’m learning. But, I want to learn more. I want to
get pushed more. It’s also just fun to be out there
with Mikey because he loves it so much and I want
to be a part of that.

Mikey:
That’s such a good question. I like that question.
Lisa:
Yeah, for sure. When Mikey is making a film, I stay
with him late into the morning. I have become
attached to the process. When we went to Costa
Rica together, he let me shoot some footage. We keep
talking about doing it more, but when the waves
are good, it’s hard to be anywhere else. I would
definitely love to get into it more.

Abbye:
Mikey, how did you transition from your love of
surfing to making films? When did High Sea Films
start?

She’s a natural at it.

Abbye:
I can’t wait to see the first collaboration.

Mikey:
It all came together on a trip to the Maldives in 2006.
I was there with a couple guys from Australia and a
photographer. It was one of the most amazing trips
I’ve been on. And, no one was recording. I thought,
‘This would be such a crazy trip to shoot on film.’ I
had a video camera with me; I shot video the whole
time. And, I just thought, ‘I’ve got to go on trips and
start shooting video of all these places.’ The next
year, every trip that I did, I brought a video guy
with me. I wanted to make a film not necessarily

12

Mikey:

On Mikey: Parka / Peacoat. Crew Fleece / White Multicheck.
One Pocket Shirt / Brilliant White Oxford. Tack / Lagoon.
—
On Lisa: Turnout Blazer Jacket / Blue Sapphire. Endless
Shirt / Blue Sapphire Ditsy Waves. Marker / Spirit.

13

Patience

Delivery One: November – December

Parka / Peacoat. Crew Fleece / White Multicheck.

In the Sky

Photography by Jeremy Liebman

18

19

Parka / Peacoat. Breaker Tunic / Blue Red Waves.
Beau Boyfriend / Blue Swell.

Patience

20
21
Bomber Jacket / Imperial Blue Suede. Bow Tie / Blue Stripe Oxford.
One Pocket Shirt / Blue Stripe Oxford. Tack / Sea Breeze.

In the Sky

Parka / Peacoat. Crew Fleece / White Multicheck.
Tack / Sea Breeze.

Patience

22
23
Turnout Blazer Jacket / Blue Sapphire.
Endless Shirt / Blue Sapphire Ditsy Waves. Empire / Motion.

In the Sky

Women’s Turnout Blazer Jacket / Blue Sapphire.
Reversible fabric.

Women’s Turnout Blazer Jacket / Blue Sapphire.

Patience

24

Delivery One: November – December

First Wave

Photography by John Luke

25

Women’s Beau Boyfriend / Blue Swell.
Hand scraped and sponged finish.

Women’s Beau Boyfriend / Blue Swell.

Patience

26
27
Men’s Needle / Splintered.

First Wave

Women’s Breaker Tunic / Blue Red Waves.
Ditsy waves pattern.

Patience

28
29
Women’s Endless Shirt / Blue Sapphire Ditsy Waves.
100% silk fabric.

First Wave

Men’s Bomber Jacket / Imperial Blue Suede.

Patience

30
31
Men’s Bomber Jacket / Imperial Blue Suede.
100% goat suede.

First Wave

Men’s Outerwear: Parka / Peacoat. Mac Coat / London Fog.
Bomber Jacket / Imperial Blue Suede. Leather Biker Jacket / Blue Black.

Patience

32
33
Men’s Parka / Peacoat. Leather interior placket.

First Wave

Patience

Interlude

6:00

6:30

7:00

7:30

8:00

8:30

9:00

9:30

10:00

10:30

11:00

11:30

Photography by Rob Kulisek

36

37

Patience

Walking Rockaway

the distance from
Brooklyn is so
close, it’s walkable,
but getting there
takes stamina
and a little bit of
tenacity.

Photo by Rob Kulisek.

Walking Rockaway

Photography by Rob Kulisek and Jason Walker

38

39

40
Photo by Jason Walker.


Patience
Walking Rockaway

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42


Patience
Walking Rockaway

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44


Patience
Walking Rockaway

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46


Patience
Walking Rockaway

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48


Patience
Walking Rockaway

49

Patience

Walking Rockaway

50



On Jason: Trucker Jacket / Stonebleach. Regular
Tee / Blue Dash. Needle / Splintered. 32oz Denim
Bag / Selvedge Denim.

51

Patience

Delivery Two: January – February

Angels Short Sleeve Shirt / Storytime Blue.

Sand Shores


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53

Hawaiian Shirt / Multi Waves. LMC Tee / Star White.
Drop Out Pant / Denim.

Patience

54
55
Trucker Jacket / Mid Wash. Women’s Far Out Tank / Corn Silk Ditsy.
Poolside Skirt / Storytime Blue.

Sand Shores

Knit Cardigan / Blue Sapphire. Regular Tee / Red White Blue. Spoke / Lagoon.

Patience

56
57
Bay Dress / Bright Aqua Ditsy.

Sand Shores

Angels Short Sleeve Shirt / Storytime Blue. Pins Cropped / Cloudy White Bleach.

Patience

58
59
Hawaiian Shirt / Multi Waves. LMC Tee / Star White.

Sand Shores

Blazer / Boating Stripe. Button Down Shirt / Blue Checkboard.
Thumb Tack Cropped / Rigid.

Patience

60
61
Luxe Shirt / White. Roller Tank / Star White. Marker / Blowout.

Sand Shores

Men’s Drop Out Pant / Denim. Drawstring waistband.

Women’s Trucker Jacket / Mid Wash. Contrast shades of denim.

Patience

62

Delivery Two: January – February

Second Wave


63

Women’s Poolside Skirt / Storytime Blue. Blue Moon all over print.

Patience

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65
Women’s Angels Short Sleeve Shirt / Storytime Blue.

Second Wave

Men’s Hawaiian Shirt / Multi Waves. Multiwave gradient print

Patience

66
67
Men’s Hawaiian Shirt / Multi Waves.

Second Wave

Women’s Luxe Shirt / White. Soft cotton voile.

Patience

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69
Luxurious Silks for Women: Far Out Tank / Sugar Coral. Beach Jacket / Bright Aqua.
Far Out Tank / Corn Silk Ditsy. Endless Shirt / Bright White.

Second Wave

Men’s Thumb Tack / Rigid.

Patience

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Men’s Thumb Tack / Rigid. Copper rivets.

Second Wave

Women’s Marker / Blowout.

Patience

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73
Women’s Marker / Blowout. Ripped and repaired.

Second Wave

Men’s Blazer / Boating Stripe. Interior pocket.

Patience

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Men’s Gradient Patterns: Breton Tee / Blue Sapphire Stripe. Button Down Shirt / American Beauty Waves. Short Sleeve Shirt / Blue Checkboard.
Button Down Shirt / Blue moon Gradation. Button Down Shirt / Blue Checkboard.

Second Wave

Patience

Interlude

12:00

12:30

13:00

13:30

14:00

14:30

15:00

15:30

16:00

16:30

17:00

17:30

Photography by Rob Kulisek

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Patience

Turning Tides

Waves Take Time

“The tides, when the Moon swung closer, rose so high nobody could
hold them back. There were nights when the Moon was full and very,
very low, and the tide was so high that the Moon missed a dunking in
the sea by a hair’s-breadth.”
—Italo Calvino, “The Distance of the Moon”

Text by Carmen Winant

We turn the tide, are tided over, drift with the tide. These linguistic metaphors for the continual rise and fall of the ocean have been harnessed
by writers the world over to describe romance, life force (or respiration),
renewal, temperament, the steadiness of life and also its inevitable
disappointments. The Oxford dictionary defines the tide as a powerful
surge of feeling, which is perhaps the most astute understanding of the
phenomenon I’ve ever heard.

Most non-experts are aware of the relationship between the moon
and the tide, and they usually agree that it seems almost metaphysical.
It’s easy to figure that gravity, proximity, lunar phases, atmosphere,
solar system, eclipses, magnetism, relativity, mass, the earth’s axis and
its distance to the sun play a part in how the sea rises and falls, but the
physics are more uncertain. How do the sea and the sky communicate
and transmute energy? Like any dependent relationship, symbiosis
is complicated and uneven; they both need one another, but in very
different ways.

The story is complicated so I’ll make it simple: the moon orbits
around earth and together they rotate around the sun. As it rotates, the
moon pulls at the earth—like a magnet in search of a reverse charge—
trying to draw it ever closer. But the dense satellite is no match for
our planet, which is three times larger and exerts ten million times
the gravity. We hold on. What the moon can do, the only thing it can
muster with its limited gravitational force, is attract the water. Water
is harder to hold onto than land (perhaps you’ve noticed that you can’t
catch it?) since it’s not rooted and is always moving. Oceans appear to
bulge at the horizon line not only because the earth is round, but in
fact because they are reaching away from the ground and towards the
moon. Another slightly more subdued bulge, called a ‘sympathetic bulge,’
occurs on the side of the earth not facing the moon. And throughout
this routine choreography, the earth never ceases to rotate on its axis,

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unraveling the
relationship
between the moon
and our maritime
experiences.

Patience

Waves Take Time

84

Photo by Rob Kulisek

causing inconsistencies in the sea level as it reaches shore. These are
tides, as we know them: every twelve hours and twenty-five minutes (as
the moon is also rotating along with the earth), oceans on both sides
of the globe rise and fall, rise and fall as whole oceans are stretched
and released, stretched and released.

I’ll return to the sun here, which is often left out of the story as it
has less gravity than the moon and is also a little less sexy, a little too
brassy. When the moon is big and ripe—a full moon, for instance—it’s
because it has aligned with the sun relative to the earth and formed a
single, straight line in outer space. As a result of level positioning, the
moon’s magnetism is combined with that of the sun, which also pulls
at the earth with distant gravitational force. On those nights—called
‘spring tides’—high tides are very high and low tides are very low. The
sea is wild and bridled all at once. It’s an invisible lure, a pitch frequency,
a siren song.

Four times a year the sun and the moon stand at a right angle
to one another; they are perpendicular to one another with regard to
the earth. These are quarter moons and they cause ‘neap tides.’ During
these episodes, the “bulges” in the ocean cancel one another out, and
the high and low tides are very, very weak. Perhaps you’ve noticed.
Here’s a story about the spring tide and the neap tide: In the
twenty-nine year history of Alcatraz, the water-bound penitentiary,
thirty-six prisoners attempted to escape from the island and cross the
mile and half of water to shore. Of them, only five men remain unaccounted for, all of whom fled at night. Unlike the others who relied
on tricks and diversions, it is reported that these men studied the San
Francisco Bay. They understood, somehow, that the moon (it’s shape,
it’s size, it’s relative closeness to the earth) profoundly affected the
water’s swell, and the tides were their only real chance of absconding
to freedom. They patiently observed from their cell windows, these old
and young men—many of them feared gangsters, though a few petty
criminals—that when the moon was full, the Bay was at its most wild.
After waiting until the just right evening, the prisoners took their leave
of that place only when they could be carried out. The water that held
the prisoners captive on that rock was the only agent that could set
them free of it.
How did they know the time was right? A powerful surge of feelings.
An innate sense. A strong attraction. It’s metaphysical that way.
85

Patience

Try, Try, Try
Again

Try, Try, Try Again

in a Brooklyn
warehouse,
surfboard shaper
David Murphy
proves that
perseverance (and
unconventiality)
pays off.
Photography by Rob Kulisek / Text by Jeff DiNunzio

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Patience

Try, Try, Try Again

David Murphy is pacing behind a curtain. Throughout his fourth-floor
workshop, air constantly swirls in unseen patterns, carrying with it a din of
white noise — occasional exhales of a paint sprayer and the hum of the AC
in the back corner window that peers south over the rest of Williamsburg,
Brooklyn. The trim, six-foot-two Murphy applies even coats of clear resin to
protect the smoky navy blue deck of a nine-foot longboard. He strides and
sprays in equal measure. Another few layers and an hour later, he’ll flip the
board over and repeat the same steps on the bottom. Meanwhile, there’s always
something to be done. While each clear coat dries, he continues mixing resins.
Much like the ocean, where for the last six years his custom, handmade and
often atypically shaped surfboards have carved the waves of south shore
Long Island, David Murphy is always in motion.

That Murphy grew up skateboarding
in dried out pools in backyards
in land-locked Texas is about the
only detail of his life that may have
suggested a career making surfboards
was unlikely. He’s been working with
his hands for most of his life. He
learned to sculpt in grade school and
continued as a student at Hampshire
College in Massachusetts, worked
as a carpenter building frames for
homes, and made films and arranged
theatrical lighting. Utilitarianism is a
living doctrine in his life. And Murphy
is, most certainly, useful.

In 1997, after hopping freight
trains across the country to capture
scenes for his final college documentary film thesis, Murphy arrived
in New York City. “I moved into a

warehouse space in DUMBO for a
hundred-fifty a month, splitting it
with three guys, no heat,” Murphy
remembers of his first primitive home
in the city. He then squatted across the
East River in Lower Manhattan before
returning to Brooklyn, always keeping
his hands active — once in a minor fit
of protest, building transmitters for
community pirate radio stations.

Murphy’s functional cunning,
however, is not limited to inanimate
objects. Nearly fifteen years ago, he
blew out his back skateboarding. He
tried everything other than surgery
and drugs; nothing helped. He limped
on. Murphy visited a guy who practices what he does now, “and after one
session I wasn’t limping anymore,” a
healed Murphy recalls. “I walked

88

out of his office, got halfway down
the block, and sort of rearranged my
life. Said, ‘That’s going to be my next
career.’”

It’s called Rolfing, named for
Ida Rolf, the Columbia University
Ph.D. who discovered the therapy
method more than fifty years ago. She
understood the body as a network of
integrated tissue rather than simply
a collection of individual components — and that gravitywill eventually
exacerbate imbalances in the body,
leading to pain and decreased flexibility. According to the Rolf Institute
of Structural Integration in Colorado,
Rolfing essentially links chiropractic
adjustments — which focus on the
skeleton — and massage therapy that
targets muscles by incorporating

89

Patience

Try, Try, Try Again
elements of both. Athletes, dancers
and children are just some of the
estimated one million people who
have benefitted from Rolfing therapy.
And including Murphy, whose back
troubles have long inhibited his
physical activity, surfers too. Rolfing,
Murphy told me, also seeks to foster a
perceptual change in the way patients
observe their bodies in the space
they occupy — connecting mind and
body. From that, Rolfing may ease
chronic pain and improve freedom of
movement. It saved Murphy’s life. So
much so that a decade ago, he traveled
to remote north central Washington,
slightly east of the Cascades at a bend
in the Methow River, to train at the
Institute of Structural Medicine. If the
few Yelp reviews are any indication,
Murphy provides five-star handiwork.
He rehabs clients three days a week,
“and the rest of the time I’m in my
shop.” As in Rolfing, Murphy seeks
balance, and for him that comes in
the form of building surfboards for
repaired bodies to ride.

Back at the shop, the faint grays
streaking through his burly beard
are easier to spot in the bright light,
and in the soft shade of a MacBook
scroll bar, the cool blue of his eyes is
magnetic. The shop noticeably lacks
the pungent stench of chemicals — of
the polyester often used to glass surfboards. That’s because Murphy uses
the least harmful materials possible
to construct his vehicles: recycled EPS
foam, repurposed wood, water-based
resins. Spray paint is about the worst
product in Murphy’s shop.

A dozen boards stand in varying
degrees of completion along the racks
against the wall. The cork-boards
catch my eye — as they do many of
New York’s surfboard geeks. Not long
ago, Murphy’s curiosity drew him
to investigate cork as a viable surfboard building material. He noticed
northern California shaper Danny
Hess incorporating cork in his designs,
and found a guy in Florida doing the
same thing. So Murphy tried himself,
binding cork decks to the bodies of
his foam boards and sealing them
under layers of fiberglass. Now he’s
experimenting with exposed cork
decks; the resin beneath the cork

90

seals it to the board, but the top is not
laminated. No wax required. “Cork
is the ultimate composite material,”
explains Murphy. “It’s lighter, it’s
cheaper, it’s more impact resistant, it’s
easier to work with, it gives a really
nice flex pattern.” The boards look like
nothing I’d ever seen — much to the
delight of his customers.

Murphy never set out to make a
business of building surfboards. He
was dissatisfied by an alaia (a thin
wooden board with no fins) made
by California’s Jon Wegener. The
handyman naturally asked himself
the obvious question: why not just
make my own? Friends who rode
Murphy’s personal boards soon
wanted their own, which Murphy sold
under the label Inner Circle. As his
renown grew, so too did the perceived
pretension of his brand name. “New
York feels like this weird backwater,
where I’m picking it up as I go along,”
Murphy, who never worked as an
apprentice like other shapers, says of
learning the craft. From that attitude
came a suggestion from a friend for
a more compelling, inclusive label:
Imaginary Surf Company.

Murphy’s approach landed him
a small retail deal in downtown
Manhattan. He had been shaping
wooden handplanes for bodysurfing
at the time he met Josh Rosen — one
of the three owners of the boutique
Saturdays Surf shop in the city.
Murphy stopped by, got talking to
Rosen. Rosen remembers seeing
Murphy later surfing at Rockaway
Beach, riding one of his cork-boards.
“We chatted about it for a bit and that’s
when I learned that he shaped boards,
as well as handplanes,” says Rosen.
Shortly after, Murphy’s handplanes
arrived on Saturdays’ shelves.

Murphy’s boards, however, are
harder to find. He makes almost all of
them to order, although a few exist at a
shop in the Hamptons and a Patagonia
store in Japan. Murphy meets many
of his clients like he did Rosen. Corey
Smith, a lithe, tattooed 22-year old
transient who grew up surfing in
Florida and moved to New York a
year ago, met Murphy at a party in
February. The pair hit it off, and surfed
together a week later when the next

91

frigid winter swell arrived. “I surfed
one his boards, this egg-shaped quad,”
Smith recalls. “It worked really well,
but it was a little big for me.” Murphy
built a board made of paulownia
wood for the shorter, lighter Smith.
“I’ve ridden it three times. It’s going
to be a great summertime board, really
strong,” Smith says, anticipating New
York’s small wave season.

Murphy plans to halt his handplane production after the summer
to focus on making stock board
shapes and to continue experimenting with designs. “I’m hoping to
come out with a series of templates
based on NACA foils,” Murphy reveals.
The National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics — a precursor to
NASA — was formed in 1915 to help
the U.S. compete with Europe’s
burgeoning aviation industry. NASA
absorbed the agency in 1958, but not
before NACA produced a series of airfoil
designs to apply to airplane wing
construction in the 1930s. Murphy
believes he can translate those calculations into surfboards that perform
as well as any.

It’s that mentality, an unrelenting
curiosity, the ability to assemble
success from failure and elbow grease,
that carries Murphy. Be it sculpting,
hardwiring radio transmitters, or
healing bodies, Murphy knows his
most effective tools are his hands,
which can only be powered by his
mind. Who knows if in the future
surfboards will exhaust him? If they
do, there’s little doubt he’ll tackle his
next venture with the same precision.

When I head for the door, Murphy
pulls his mask back over his bristly
beard, and returns his attention to
the longboard, only a few laps from
the finish. The spray gun fires again
as I walk down the hall. I make a note
to pay attention to the man behind
the curtain.

On David: Classic Shirt / Indigo
Flowers. Drop Out Shorts / Indigo Big
Weave.
—
On Chris: Big Shirt / Star White.
Spoke / Khaki.

Patience

Try, Try, Try Again

92

93

Patience

Angels Short Sleeve Shirt / Bright White. Indigo Mesh Scarf / Indigo Dye.

Sky Meets Sea

Delivery Three: February – March


94

95

Big Shirt / Light Blue.

Patience

96
97
Angels Short Sleeve Shirt / Bright White. Empire Shorts / Afternoon Whispers.

Sky Meets Sea

Angels Short Sleeve Shirt / Bright White. Empire Shorts / Afternoon Whispers.
Indigo Mesh Scarf / Indigo Dye.

Patience

98
99
Classic Shirt / Indigo Flowers. Spoke / Indigo Waffle.
Indigo Hat / Indigo Dye.

Sky Meets Sea

Big Shirt / Light Blue. Drop Out Shorts / Indigo Big Weave.

Patience

100
101
Endless Shirt / Blue Double Cloth. Beau Boyfriend / Rogue.

Sky Meets Sea

Men’s Big Shirt / Light Blue.

Women’s Beau Boyfriend / Rogue. Hand sanded, stonewashed and bleached.

Patience

102

Delivery Three: February – March

Third Wave


103

Men’s Drop Out Short / Indigo Big Weave. All natural indigo woven fabric.

Patience

105
Men’s Drop Out Short / Indigo Big Weave.

104
Women’s Empire Shorts / Afternoon Whispers.

Third Wave

Men’s Classic Shirt / Indigo Flowers. Interior printed fabric.

Tye Dye Accessories: Indigo Canvas Bag / Indigo Dye.
Indigo Tie / Indigo Dye.

Patience

106
107
Men’s All Natural Indigo Dyes: Blazer / Indigo Waffle. Classic Shirt / Indigo Flowers. Men’s Drop Out Pant / Denim.
Classic Shirt / Indigo Waffle. Drill Shorts / Indigo Waffle. Tack / Indigo Waves. Drill Chino / Indigo Big Weave.

Third Wave

Indigo Hat / Indigo Dye. All natural indigo tye dye.

Indigo Hat / Indigo Dye.

Patience

108
109
Indigo Canvas Bag / Indigo Dye. Tye dye moon.

Third Wave

Women’s Empire Short / Afternoon Whispers.

Men’s Drill Shorts / Indigo Waffle.

Patience

110
111
Women’s Bleached Finishes: Empire Cropped / Coastline. Empire / Cloud Beach.
Beau Boyfriend / Rogue. Empire Cropped / Afternoon Whispers. Pins Cropped / Cloudy White Beach.

Third Wave

Men’s Big Shirt / Light Blue.

Patience

112

Fit Guide

Back

01090

01090

Front

Pins

Skinny fit, low rise, skinny leg

114

Pins

Zipper fly opening, 7 1/2” front rise,
13 3/4” knee, 10 1/4” leg opening

115

Empire Cropped

Empire

Pins Cropped

Tender

Skinny fit, low rise, cropped leg

Slim fit, low rise, bootcut leg

116

Empire Cropped

Zipper fly opening, 9” front rise,


13003

01092

13003

Skinny fit, mid rise, skinny leg

01092

Empire

Skinny fit, mid rise, skinny leg

11 492

011 40

Back

11 492

011 40

Front

Pins Cropped

Tender


Zipper fly opening, 7 1⁄5” front rise,

117

Slim Chino

Marker

Flute

Beau Boyfriend

Slim fit, mid rise, straight leg

Boyfriend fit, high rise, tapered leg

118

Slim Chino

15 1⁄5” knee, 12 3/4” leg opening


11200

11200

13090

Slim fit, low rise, tapered leg

13090

Marker

Boyfriend fit, mid rise, tapered leg

11190

01810

Back

11190

01810

Front

Flute

Beau Boyfriend


16” knee, 13 1/4” leg opening

119

Back

05081

05081

Front

Tack

Slim fit, regular rise, slim leg

120

Tack

Zipper fly opening, 10 ⅝” front rise,
16 ¼” knee, 14 ½” leg opening

121

59109

Shuttle

Ruler

Needle

Cutter

Narrow fit, regular rise, skinny leg

Relaxed fit, mid-waist, straight leg

122

Shuttle

16 ⅞” knee, 13 ⅞” leg opening

Button fly opening, 10 3/4” front rise,
18” knee, 15 ¾” leg opening

59090

59118

59090

Slim fit, mid rise, tapered leg

59118

59109

Ruler

Straight fit, regular rise, straight leg

0505 5

Back

0505 5

Front

Needle

Cutter

16 1⁄5” knee, 13 3/4” leg opening


123

Drop Out Pant

Thumb Tack

Spoke Chino

Drill Chino


Straight fit, regular rise, tapered leg

124

Drop Out Pant



05131

05131

05136

Loose fit, regular rise, dropped crotch,
tapered leg

05136

Thumb Tack


59121

590 7 3

Back

59121

590 7 3

Front

Spoke Chino

Drill Chino


18 3/4” knee, 15” leg opening

125

Men’s

Women’s

Accessories

126

127

Contacts
Sales Inquiries
Europe

Martin White
Levi’s® XX
European Sales Director
+31 21 271 2200
mwhite@levi.com
France Belgium

Dylan Julien
Levi’s® XX
Sales Manager
djulien@levi.com
+31 21 291 2718
Olivier Jacoby
Levi’s® XX
Sales Manager
ojacoby@levi.com
+31 21 281 2479
Germany, Austria
Switzerland

Ricky Alston
Levi’s® XX Sales Manager
ralston@levi.com
+41 251 2791 2104
Iryna Denysova
Levi’s® XX
Sales Manager
idenysova@levi.com
+49 151 171 241 47
Italy, Greece Turkey
Gabriele Roccato
groccato@levi.com
+31 2401 211 280
Alessia Greco
agreco@levi.com
+31 2481 201 235
Nordic
The Netherlands

Nils Schéle
nschele@levi.com
+41 21 2981 201
Marcus Bohme
mbohme@levi.com
+41 261 231 201

Spain Portugal

Annamaria Ferran
annamariaferran@gmail.com
+31 21 241 2214
Uk Ireland

Pamela Parke
Pparke@Levi.com
+41 2861 221 205

Beatriz Losada
blosada@levi.com
+41 2851 251 260

THE NETHERLANDS

Claire Timmermans
Spice PR
Claire@spicepr.nl
+31 02 0489 1031

Japan

Yosuke Otsubo
Levi’s® XX Sales
Marketing Director
yotsubo@levi.com
+81 2 6411 2501
Shinohara Katsuyuji
kshinohara@levi.com
+81 2 6411 2501
Takenori Watanabe
Levi’s® XX Sales
twatanabe@levi.com
+81 6418 5501
Usa Canada

Dave Coury
Namaste USA
david@namasteshowroom.com
1 211 231 2506
Alishea Ray
Namaste USA West,
Los Angeles
alishea@namasteshowroom.com
1 211 281 2867
Traci Mcrobbie
Namaste USA West,
Los Angeles
traci@namasteshowroom.com
1 211 281 2867
Eric Davis
Namaste USA East, New York
1 211 241 2530
eric@namasteshowroom.com

Press Inquiries
EUROPE

Christian Meister
Levi’s® XX
Public Relations Manager
cmeister@levi.com
+49 692 4008 0101
FRANCE

Marjorie Jacquet
PopRoy
Marjorie@popandroy.com
+33 01 4221 0704
GERMANY

Janina Koch
Silk Relations
janina@silk-relations.com
+49 03 0847 10834
ITALY

Katia Mercuri
Parini Associati S.R.L.
k.mercuri@pariniassociati.com
+39 02 4398 3106

SPAIN

Hugo Aragon
Finally Press
haragon@finallypress.com
+34 09 1521 5028
SWEDEN

Catrin Nilsson
Patriksson Communication
catrin@patrikssonpr.com
+46 08 5280 0590
UK

Jacqui Rivers
Exposure
Jacqui.rivers@exposure.net
+44 02 0790 77176
Japan

Takeshi Mikami
PR01
takeshi_mikami@hpgrp.com
+81 2 5771 2408
Usa

Michael Williams
Paul Williams
New York
mw@paulandwilliams.com
1 211 221 2750
Ali Paul

Paul Williams
Los Angeles
ali@paulandwilliams.com
1 211 251 2883

MARKETING
Joshua Katz
Levi’s® XX
Global Marketing Director
jkatz@levi.com
+1 415 501 7781
Raul Mendoza
Levi’s® XX
Global Marketing Manager
rmendoza@levi.com
+1 415 501 6047
EUROPE

Nana Murbandono
Levi’s® XX
Marketing Manager
nmurbandono@levi.com
+31 20 572 0200
USA

Ben Starmer
Levi’s® XX
Marketing Manager
bstarmer@levi.com
+1 303 503 0415

L EVI S MA D EAN D CRA F TE D . C O M

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