Cruising Through Summer: Orlebar Brown’s 2025 Collection Redefines Effortless Resort Style.

From the moment founder Adam Brown was politely turned away from a seaside lunch while wearing drenched swim trunks, a quietly revolutionary idea was born - not just a new kind of swimshort, but a “short you could swim in.” That 2005 holiday insight rippled outwards, culminating in 2007 with the first Orlebar Brown shorts, built on the pattern of a classic men’s trouser rather than board-shorts clichés.

Yet there’s another wrinkle to the story - one that sits at the intersection of luxe heritage and contemporary restraint. Since 2018, Orlebar Brown has been part of Chanel.

But rather than diluting OB’s easy elegance, the acquisition seems to have given it wings - global infrastructure, expanded distribution, but no dilution of its signature DNA. The result: a wardrobe that travels across hemispheres, from Bondi sunrise to Capri sunset, without missing a beat.

Fast‑forward to 2025, and Orlebar Brown isn’t just riding the wave - it’s shaping the coastline. The new Cruise ’25 collection reads less like a seasonal refresh and more like a manifesto for modern leisure: polished, playful, and intelligently effortless.

What makes Cruise ’25 stand out isn’t flashy branding or loud logos; it’s fluency in lifestyle. Take the Petralis motif - a sweeping botanical print that evokes Mediterranean citrus groves and shaded courtyards, conjuring a Slim Aarons Riviera tableau without ever feeling costume-y. Then there’s Cirqua, a modern geometry of circles and lines that trips the eye like light dancing through palm fronds. Together, these prints channel a kind of “jet‑set quietude” - the relaxed confidence of someone who knows they’re dressed well but doesn’t need anyone to tell them.

The collection’s centrepiece, the Murray shirt‑jacket, embodies this ethos perfectly: a relaxed silhouette that pairs with loungewear trousers or tailored swimshorts, ready to carry you from boardwalk to bar with equal grace. Add to that the Swift polo - knitted in Italy and refined from previous crochet iterations - or the Maitan Contrast shirt, which blends printed silk and airy linen, and you see a brand grocery-listing not just for sun-soaked afternoons, but for entire holidays, climates, cities, and states of mind.

Some summers arrive with a splash. Others quietly redefine how you dress for them. #Cruise25

In this era, dressing well isn’t about formality or overt luxury. It’s about mobility and mood, about clothes that travel as easily as your thoughts. And Orlebar Brown has long known that swimwear need not retire at the first sign of infamy - their signature “short you can swim in” remains not only relevant but revolutionary, decades after the brand’s founding.

What Cruise ’25 underscores is how OB has matured. This isn’t holidaywear for tourists; it’s the wardrobe of the “holiday literate” - those who treat sun, sea, and sand as a lifestyle, not a vacation. It’s minimal functionality meeting subtle indulgence; it’s resortwear with restraint. In a market flooded with loud logos and louder claims, Orlebar Brown offers quiet conviction - the sartorial equivalent of an unobserved sip of chilled rosé on the deck of a yacht anchored somewhere between St. Tropez and Mykonos.

In its essence, Cruise ’25 is a proposition: that summer might be fleeting, but style doesn’t have to be. Orlebar Brown proves that sometimes, sophistication doesn’t shout. It simply knows where to catch the light, which sunshine it belongs in, and how to carry you there.

In a world of constant motion, that kind of ease is the real luxury.

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Words by AW.

Photo courtesy of Orlebar Brown.