An oversized wall moodboard inside the Australian weatherboarded studio and office in Palm Beach Australia

The unbridled coastal views untainted by an urban metropolis is only accessible through the snake way of asphalt roads leading to a density of native flora and shrubs, perceptively dispersed by the vertiginous Livisatona australias that are cloistered and overgrown. As far as the locals are concerned, this is the primal definition of an urban paradise. Beach surfers who are longstanding surf club members will find diamonds in the rough: Avalon and Whale Beach a stone’s throw and like Moses, the water at their perpetual command.

Snaking along past northern suburbs of Sydney including Pymble, Gordon, St. Ives and Mona Vale your supercharged with this distinctive aura of an oasis looming by. The cadence, the rhythm of flanked horticulture by either side of an artificial paved road is simply breathtaking. And the convoy of a city rush over is simply bokehed.

As you reach Surf Road that leads to the surmountable hill top of where Bassike’s studio is situated in Palm Beach, overhead you can glimpse at the Tasman Sea with its gentle giant hands waving across the beach shoes in sheer brilliance. Old fashioned 1970’s weatherboarded homes are atypical in this top end of Terra Australis which co-exist Australian homes that have had an architectural manicure.

The gentle giant sea canters its sheer coastal waves and an unfamiliar incased white weatherboarded home stares in motionless gaze. It’s numbered with ‘38’ and a black top Audi 4 by 4 is parked beside a crumbling stone staircase leading to the flymesh door. A boathouse of a pair of marine blue pumps tramples to the door eagerly. It’s Jacqueline, Bassike’s communications manager welcomes with a joyous smile.

What’s pulsating is the airy, lofty insular setting of Bassike’s working office and studio. Mary Lou Ryan and Deborah Sams are both the directors of the brand who have their desks at opposite ends of the room yet always in reach of the mightly central table and the overlooking seascape.

Ryan and Sams have been working in the fashion industry for over 20 years. Each have garnered a work ethic that has been steadfast and meticulous having worked for well known Australian fashion brands including Marcs, Tsubi (now Ksubi) and General Pants. Their accumulated knowledge of retail buying and management lead them to join forces and create their now brand Bassike.

”I suppose it’s been quite successful and quick as you don’t have time to look back and you don’t do that enough” Sams explains by taking an overview of Bassike’s cemented success within the industry. She continues by saying, “We have always wanted it to be a success and I think we were here in the right place at the right time. It was the time jersey took off and we were the first Australian brand to cement that as our instinct”.

Street fashion were uneasy bedfellows with surf culture and from that, denim grew in instantaneous popularity through General Pants as the purveyor of an urbane luxury. Yet no one had considered the sustainability of what they were buying. Cotton as the staple fabric of the ubiquitous t-shirt requires of course shedloads of H2O in order to keep the crops healthy and for production. Fashion Professor Kate Fletcher of the London College of Fashion urged designers to take a second look at their production by minimizing waste and a healthier approach to harvesting cotton for fabric creation. Ryan and Sams were determined to ultlise organically grown cotton in Australia. “You couldn’t buy the jersey nor the quality you wanted to wear and [average] cotton you couldn’t get much wear from them” says Ryan.

Quality is paramount to both brand directors. Overseeing the entire development and production of their jersey basics and t-shirts in cotton is uncompromising. Ryan explains, “In Australia, we buy everything from the yarns to knitting the fabric to dying it, cutting the garments and washing it. We see the finished quality of our product and every step of the way, you can see our signature handwriting.”

The handwriting that protracts from Bassike’s origins is fundamentally both Sams and Ryan have understood their roles as not mere fashion designers but as product designers. Their product development using organic cotton and jersey for all of their tanks and t-shirts respectively for both men and women, additionally also terry fleece for their sweat-shirting demonstrates not only a quality of vision for their brand but the critical value and worth of clothing that propels them into the sphere of product and industrial design by important designers such as Phillipe Starck and Jasper Morrison.

Crucially, Sams details the communication of Bassike, “It’s just not creating a mere fashion product. A lot of thought goes into the product we make and what we’ve been doing with denim and it always starts from design.” However, as the Australian media tried to categorise Bassike as a staple jersey brand, Sams emphasises with the following, “The first two seasons we did jersey but we started to introduce more ‘collection’ pieces and not be pigeon-holed as a jersey brand. We wanted to ensure that Bassike was a brand that covered wardrobe staples and not a trend-driven product. More what Mary Lou was saying ‘producing a beautiful product with integrity behind it. The look and feel of the fabrication.”

Sams and Ryan initiate their seasonal range by a sensitivity to fabric. Both have been enamored by the vast textile landscape of India and the suppleness of textures now encapsulated by their arsenal of garments. Yet it is also the production of denim that has bestowed Bassike as a fine jeans maker. “Japan is an amazing resource. The Japanese are very clever, innovative in the use of fabrications. To produce locally, we couldn’t achieve authentic denim. In terms of Japan, we felt what they could produce sat well with what we were doing [with Bassike].

In particular, Sams is impassioned by the subject of Japanese denim. Her candor is lucid explaining how Bassike’s denim is forged by local artisans in a small fishing village.
”The factory is quite hidden away and is a denim precinct. It’s within a full-blown denim town and there are denim stores everywhere and washhouses. But it is also quite closed factories so it has been a privilege for us to go into their amazing laundries that can do these amazing treatments. Every night, the owner walks around and with every single machine, will re-adjust the tension manually on the needle so that each jeans will have slight natural imperfections. So they are not coming out cookie-cut! He is always there until 2 in the morning because he’s meticulous about the denim. His father works there and father’s father two of two generations.”

Scrupulous is the best word to describe Bassike, a description that seems to have always been uncontested by maisons and workshops of high fashion. If you thought the brand was just impressive on the product side, the cusp of its art-direction and imagery cements Bassike as not just an Australian but one to be recognised as international.

Working with Australian photographer Beau Grealy who has lived in New York for the past 10 years and who has produced images for Bon Magazine, The Sunday Times London and Dansk Magazine, Grealy has endeavoured to capture the brand as a holistic whole. That is, working on location ultilising Australian backgrounds and most recently a mid-century Australian backyard consisting of a flush swimming pool. Grealy’s aspherical eye for the sharpness and sun drenched seasonal campaign images demonstrate how intricably linked Bassike is to the natural landscape as to the use of fibres and fabrics sourced locally.

Deborah Sams (pictured) sits at her window desk, already contemplating next season’s fabrics and inspiration

Ryan sets off to her work table and opens up a white binded folder of fabric samples that Bassike has used over its last collection. Angora, wool and cashmere blends have been incorporated into tailoring pieces such as a cropped camel bolero jacket and men’s suiting for the last winter collection. Sitting at the central table, Sams delves into a series of their forthcoming collection for 2012. Although still under wraps, Sams opens up her drawing patterns and illustrations which show off fabric options. Bassike acolytes will be able to immerse themselves into sky blue, tinges of brown and oranges and rugby cotton jerseys that will be released next around March of next year.

The genteel ease of the radiant sun upon the seascape horizon distracts Sams for a time, moving away from her mac. Her first baby is due in a couple of months. Taking away from the brand is both the contemporary notion of both wearability and durability and within the yarns, the denim which are washed lies Bassike’s beautiful handwriting.

Bassike – www.bassike.com