Oct 2, 2022

It’s the thing that has been missing from our range, says activewear champion Pip Edwards of P.E Nation. Expect surprises. Share Pip Edwards started her career in fashion at Ksubi, back when it was spelt Tsubi. That was 23 years ago, and 17 years before she would go on to found P.E Nation with friend Claire Tregoning, fusing activewear with elements of streetwear and making it one of Australia’s leading fashion labels. Now, Edwards and Tregoning have gone back to where it all began, designing a limited-edition capsule collection with Ksubi, released this week. “It felt like a homecoming,” says Edwards. “But more than anything, it really did make sense – denim is the thing that has been missing from our range at P.E Nation, so adding it will be great for the customer.” We found there were gaps in both Ksubi and P.E Nation that we could address together. — Craig King, chief executive, Ksubi Ksubi is a markedly different business to the one at which Edwards began her career. Back then, it was run by enfant terrible surfers-turned-designers Gareth Moody, Dan Single, Paul Wilson and George Gorrow, and stole headlines for its scandalous runway shows (such as at Australian Fashion Week in 2001, when the designers released 200 rats on the catwalk). Craig King of Ksubi flanked by Claire Tregoning, left, and Pip Edwards of P.E Nation. Oscar Colman The original four sold the brand to Bleach Group in 2010 (four years after a legal stoush forced the name change) and for several years, Ksubi volleyed between one owner and another before landing with US-based Breakwater Investment Management in 2014. General Pants subsequently entered a joint venture with Breakwater, and Craig King, then CEO at General Pants, took on the brand, hoping to build it back to the heavyweight, design-forward label it once was. Part of the rebrand has been to increase Ksubi’s retail footprint (it opened in Miami this year) and to partner with other companies to diversify the inventory offering and audience – ranges with rapper Travis Scott and streetwear brand Kith were sellouts. “The best collaborations have an organic genesis,” says King, now Ksubi’s CEO. “There’s a lot of history between the three of us [King, Edwards and Tregoning], and we found there were gaps in both Ksubi and P.E Nation that we could address together.” The result is a 16-piece collection that mixes women’s, men’s and unisex styles, borrowing activewear details such as external zips and merging the two brands’ logos. It is hoped it will be the first of many collaborations for Ksubi and P.E Nation, which, like Ksubi, has partnered with other brands in the past. P.E Nation was the first Australian brand to produce a capsule collection for Swedish fast fashion retailer H&M, for example. “The whole ethos of P.E Nation is that we are about living an active lifestyle; that you can go from the gym to breakfast or wherever in our clothing,” says Tregoning. “But let’s face it, if you’re not wearing leggings nowadays, you’re wearing denim. We needed that, and now we have it. It’s the bow on our package.” Save