Through a joint venture between Perry Ellis International and RP55 Group, Gotcha emerges for an inaugural spring 2021 launch and a jaw-dropping pallet with portions borrowed from its collage cultured past refreshed for now. The Gotcha of yesterday looked to counterculture to inform the design and assert a strong identity for the future but they step out of the void offering a collection that honors its heritage while showing up original for today. The line captures the years of surfing tradition but steers the direction of contemporary statement pieces for the modern iconoclast.
The Gotcha spring 2021 drop makes sense for the buyer looking for pieces that are essential, comfortable and loud. Gotcha’s past meets its present through a series of knits in various washes and a few seen with a signature jacquard collar that punctuates striped and solid bodies. Woven shirting and surf shorts get the Gotcha refresh ignited by repeated patterns with cut and pasted elements. A series of tanks and tees get a psychedelic tie-dye treatment and a wide range of graphic printables make as much sense in Japan as they do in Brazil. Fans of Gotcha’s global heritage will appreciate the original Fishman logo that carries on the brand’s tradition seen on comfortable hoodies, jogger pants and t-shirts.
Additional accessories like socks, beach towels and even a volleyball tie the range together paying respects to Gotcha’s beachfront roots.
Step Out of The Void
Born in South Africa and incubated in Southern California during the early 80s when surfing had already long abandoned its global bubblegum image, professional surfer Michael Tomson launched Gotcha on the premise that iconoclasts and free-thinkers drive culture. Tomson shook up the industry by not only pushing the limits of design but simultaneously aligning Gotcha with fearless passionate creatives, radical surfers and revolutionary anti-heroes of all kinds.
The result was a punk rock approach that borrowed aesthetics from rip and tear ‘zine culture, the vibrant, loud neon look of Southern California Valley Girls and big-haired metalheads that blended well with anyone brave enough to make their own declaration of independence through the clothes they chose to wear. Tomson birthed a far-reaching, “risk-taking idea factory,” as Kevin O’Sullivan writes in ‘Going Big’, the seminal two-hundred plus page bible on the glory days of Gotcha.
Today, Gotcha is still a symbol that embodies that anarchic spirit at a time when coloring outside the lines is an affirmation that people should take notice. The brand didn’t follow but led trends that are seen down the sleeves of some of the most respected streetwear brands today. As Gotcha is reimagined for now, it still follows a similar global uniform message, a pattern of progression that honors the surfers, designers, photographers, artists and peripheral communities that surround them—individuals who still know Gotcha makes a statement for the bold, brave and unmistakably independent.
As Tomson would say, “To hell with the consequences.” This is the Gotcha of today the way it was intended to evolve.
