“I Came Out Of The Womb On A Surfboard!”

The place where surf and art meet is a usually quaint, often sporadic, but always enthusiastic, environment. And, it needs to be enthusiastic: There’s a great difference between simply printing an artwork on a t-shirt, and infusing the essence of an artist into an entire collection.

The latter is, most certainly, where Billabong’s new Andy Warhol joint lands.

Warhol was a prolific creative who led the pop art movement in the 1960s. He was once described by an interviewer as “the cool centre around which rotates the freakiest collection of displaced egos in New York.” His studio, The Factory, was filled with his artwork and muses, and has been the subject of many film and book settings. His life was a pop art psychodrama.

Perhaps you’ll wonder just what Warhol has to do with surf. The link starts with the artist’s 1968 film, San Diego Surf. It starred Viva and Taylor Mead as a married couple on the brink of divorce, who rent their beach house to a group of surfers. Warhol filmed with Paul Morrissey around La Jolla, but the editing process took a backseat after Valerie Solanas shot Warhol in an attempted assassination. After Warhol’s death, his family commissioned Morrissey to edit the film in the 90s. It finally screened for the first time at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2011.

Warhol was fascinated by surf culture. “I’m seeking out a new way to live and if it’s surfing, that’s the way I’ll do it,” he famously said. “I’ll be a surfer for the rest of my life. I’m extremely interested in finding a new way to live and I think that surfing could possibly be the answer. I feel that surfers really have a healthy attitude.” But perhaps lesser known is this gem from Warhol’s works: “I came out of the womb on a surfboard.” That one plays a starring role in Billabong’s new release.

The collection fuses pop art crafted by a master into wearable (and surfable) garments. It’s subtle enough to forego the Campbell’s soup tin or the many shades of Marilyn, instead opting for lesser-known works and reimagining them as prints or details on shirts, trunks and, for the women, neoprene. Billabong have also made use of Warhol’s portrait, which in many ways is more famous than his work. Which is exactly why Stab digs this collection; Warhol is a pop culture treasure worthy of constant reinterpretation and, as the man himself said,“”Everything should be recycled, like leftover food at a restaurant.”

You can now breeze through the whole collection, here.