Surfers rejoice after New York Times declares “smutty dressing is back”

A return to the golden age of surf fashion.

Surf fashion, as every surf industry enthusiast knows, is an ever-changing thing. It is sometimes en vogue for the hem of boardshort to touch below the knees, for example. Other times, any longer than lower-middle thigh is frowned upon. The best days, though, and universally agreed, were when boardshorts fell at the upper-middle thigh, t-shirts revealed every curve of torso and/or were not worn at all, all that skin out and proud.

Smut city.

You can understand the rejoicing, then, in Bondi and Bolsa Chica, Torquay and Topanga after The New York Times boldly declared “smutty dressing is back.” The conclusion reached after Gray Lady editors and writers attended Fashion Weeks in New York, Paris, Milan and London, carefully observing trends, taking notes on levels of provocation.

At the end, a return of smut with surfers, everywhere, sprinting to dusty drawers in order to dig out micro-Stubbies. Naughty Rabbit, as in Rabbit Bartholomew, certainly trending as must-wear costume this coming Halloween.

Smutty surfer was a long time coming, the very boxy skateboard silhouette absolutely dominating for the better part of a decade, but here we are again and not a moment too soon. But is surfing’s smut era your sartorial favorite or do you lean conservative, waxing nostalgic about the days when surf trunks and Scottish kilts were one in the same?