"Topanga" roughly translates, in the language of the indigenous Tongva, to "where the mountain meets the sea." It's a beautiful word for a spectacularly beautiful place and, coincidentally, the image we had in mind when we came up with the Battenwear logo.
Topanga Canyon, California is the childhood home of one of Battenwear team, and a place where we took breaks while we were getting the brand off the ground in Manhattan back in 2011. Topanga boasts a community with deep hippie roots and serious artistic bona fides, a web of unequalled hiking trails, stunning landscapes rolling with purple sage and giant oak trees, and mind-altering sunsets.
In 2017, after years of flirting with the idea, we moved Battenwear's head office from a 16th floor perch in the concrete canyons of New York City to our current converted midcentury schoolhouse studio in Topanga Canyon. We traded the wail of police sirens for the howl of coyotes, the crowded elevators for dirt paths shared with deer and bobcats, blizzards for wildfires, glittering city lights for moonlight above the open sea. Don't get us wrong, New York City will always be Battenwear's birthplace and spirit city. But Topanga is our hippie mom.
As we celebrate Battenwear's 10th anniversary we wanted to make sure to also celebrate the brand's Topanga roots. Here, we document some of our favorite local places along with some of our favorite 10th Anniversary collection FW22 items.
