Written by Menswear Style in Interviews on the 1st October 2021

The Resort Co was founded in 2018 with the mission to craft the perfect vacation wardrobe with a focus on high quality, slow production, and usage of the best and most sustainable materials. The artisan principles and high-quality mindset permeates the brand. Inspired by Scandinavian aesthetics and the notion of a never-ending Summer, the idea is to design sustainable resort wear that last season after season. They handpick the best materials and producers in Europe and all products are handcrafted by skilled artisans working in small family-owned factories dotted around Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Focusing on quality ahead of mass-production, they make timeless high-quality products and select recycled materials when they can.

In this episode of the MenswearStyle Podcast we interview Joakim Blom, Co-Founder of The Resort Co about the founding story of the brand which focusses on fashion for holidays. After leaving the world of consultancy, the co-founders self-funded the brand and started out manufacturing handmade leather flip flops before moving on to polo shirts, swim shorts, espadrilles, and sunglasses. Our host Peter Brooker and Joakim also talk about timeless fashion, the design process, the importance of comfort, and using sustainable materials.

“I'm the co-founder of The Resort Co, which is an international lifestyle brand in the Holidaywear category. We develop updated versions of timeless menswear shoes and clothing in a low impact way for you to enjoy when you're having the best times in your life. We started the company in parallel of being employed when it suddenly dawned on us that there were no nice flip flops at all. They all looked horrible, made from plastic or rubber, and the ones that came from the luxury designer houses were expensive and often adored with chains or some other detail to justify the high price point." 

"We were in Italy at Lake Como, and we were dressed nice except for wearing rubber flip flops and thought that somebody must do something about this. We took the car and drove south to Tuscany and found a factory who could develop handmade flip flops made from high end leather. Our flip flops are handmade by artisan shoemakers in Italy, and we now have a fully-fledged resortwear lifestyle brand with swimwear, clothing, and sunglasses. We basically design products that we want to wear, and inspiration comes from every part of life.”

This is a shortened transcribed edit of episode 136 of the MenswearStyle Podcast with Joakim Blom, co-founder of theresortco.com. You can listen to the full version below or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast player.

We sit down with co-founder Joakim Blom from The Resort Co to talk about Holidaywear, Flip Flops, Sunglasses, Polo shirts, and Espadrilles.