Mossimo and Aunt Becky on the rocks.
As all surfers know, even surfers in Torquay, the heart of the mighty surf industry has always Orange County, California. From Costa Mesa and its Quiksilver, Hurley, Billabong to Laguna and its Gotcha to Huntington and its Rockin’ Fig to Irvine and its Ocean Pacific, there’s almost no corner south of La Mirada, north of Camp Pendleton that isn’t infused with branding and selling the Sport of Kings.
Newport Beach was home to Mossimo. The eponymous label of Mossimo Giannulli was founded on Balboa Island in 1986 after the dashing Italian dropped out of the University of Southern California in order to chase his surfwear dream. Mossimo was only armed with a $100,000 loan from his father but flipped it to $1 million in profit after that first year, the cool kids not able to get enough of that squiggly signature.
The following year, he had $4 million. In 1996, Mossimo went public but shares dropped quick after the label attempted a high fashion pivot. Four years later, a deal was struck with Target and riches flowed.
The very next year, Giannulli eloped with America’s sweetheart, Lori Loughlin, most famous for her turn as the kind and beautiful Aunt Becky on the hit sitcom Full House and instantly one of the surf industry’s biggest power couples was formed.
Scandal struck in 2019, though, after it was discovered that the two had bribed USC in order for their daughters to attend. After much court time, Loughlin was sentenced to 2 months in prison, Giannulli 5 months.
And now, after all that, the union appears busted.
News outlets hither and yon are reporting the demise of the nearly 20-year marriage. “Lori and Mossimo are living apart,” Loughlin’s rep, Elizabeth Much, told Fox News Digital. “There are no legal proceedings underway.”
So maybe hope?
In the meantime, who, now, is the surf industry’s most powerful power couple?
Matt Biolos and Mike Reola?
More as the story develops.
always thought Mossimo was for the Western Oriental Gentlemen in Oz.
Mossimo < Stüssey
loved a bit of mossimo back in the day. then on to stussy.
you know how I hate to correct the beach grit literati, however…..”Starting with a line of neon-colored volleyball shorts and t-shirts, the Mossimo brand grew from a garage operation in California in 1986 into a $2.5 billion enterprise.”~ https://www.iconixbrand.com/mossimo/#:~:text=Starting%20with%20a%20line%20of,into%20a%20%242.5%20billion%20enterprise.
you would have been 10 at the time so you get a smack upside the head, grom pass
That does seem to jibe with what Chad wrote, minus the volleyball part of course.
Exactly. I mean it’s pretty much a given that Chas and Derek know nothing about the surf industry pre-1995 but Mossimo was a beach volleyball brand that then morphed into a sort of quasi-stussy. If anything it was a streetwear brand. Don’t think they ever sponsored a Surfer.
Torquay now infested with faux Byron accents. Place is absolutely fucking cooked.
Xox
Byron has it’s own accent ?
Is this a recent development ?
Torquay used to have it’s own accent ?
When ?
I haven’t been to Byron since the late 1980’s or Torquay since the early 1990’s and the residents of both were all average small-town country farming/fishing Aussies who sounded like all other average small-town country farming/fishing Aussies…
The only difference is Ugg boots in Torquay and Birkenstocks in Byron
Once you are grated by it it cannot be undone. It is effected simultaneously from the back of the nose and throat with zero air being moved. Very pretentious and faux cool.
Xox
Torquay is fucked. Anyone who could get out has already gotten out.
Thanks to a few fucking asshole property developers including some well known AFL identities, they turned it into suburbia.
Population has exploded, it’s full of “aspirational families” who think they are living in Byron when the reality is they live in Armstrong Creek or Warralilly. Basically they are all kooks who shop at Patagonia and work in Geelong, or feeble retirees doing a sea change for a few years before they cark it.
If I was an old Torquay local I would get the fuck out of there too.
Lunatics have taken over the asylum there.
Fucked.
Xox
Eventually someone came to snuff the rooster. No one no matter how powerful they may think they are gets theirs in the end.
Surf Industry = surfboard builders and wax (needed for surfing)
Surfwear = boardshorts and wetsuits
(worn while surfing)
Surf Accessories = legropes and deckgrip
(not necessary but useful for surfing)
Mossimo = none of the above
(unless you’re from Coos and/or Cardiff, or was a surf mag/rag-trade ad salesman back in the day)
Surfers in 2030 (four years from now)
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Never heard of him
But what about Red Sand and Side-out? Surf wear? What is “surf wear” today? Would it be Get Psyched! and Gravy?
Coos Bay, Oregon is probably the only place on the planet where Mossimo was considered “surfwear”. The rest of the surfing world saw it as beach volleyball guy-guy clothes. This one fails the surf-adjacent test.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
The toughest wank in surfing. Takes me at least 15 minutes.
Xox
Another sad day for the vampires suckling the last bit of relevance out of the rotting carcass of beach culture.
Hats off to you for using the term “beach culture” and leaving surfing out of it. You clearly did not grow up in Coos Bay.
I chose beach culture over a volleyball reference. It was a loose / loose.
Stussy was established in 1980. Mossimo in 1986. Looks like deserving USC students weren’t the only people he ripped off.
Apples and oranges (minus the theft of the logo concept)