Our story

At BlackMilk, we don’t just make clothes – we've created our own galaxy of stories, and encourage our community to fall in and tell their own. Like any good superhero origin tale, the story of BlackMilk is as improbable as it is epic. So in the words of the most epic storyteller himself, nylon emperor jL, here's the story of how BlackMilk was born:

"The story starts a long time ago in a little yellow house, outside an unusually loud train station surrounded by mango trees in Brisbane, Australia. I was broke and working odd jobs here and there in order to achieve my financial goals, which included such grand ambitions such as...paying rent. And buying noodles.

Then one day when I was unusually bored, I decided that I wanted to do something... with my hands. So…I bought a sewing machine. Of course, I had absolutely no idea how to use it, but I didn't care. The first garment I sewed was for myself. It was a tight shirt that consisted of four pieces of nylon lining, all stitched together by someone who clearly had no idea how to sew. It was tragic. And I LOVED it.

Although technically very broke, I was still working odd jobs and I started saving. If I got ten bucks it wasn't just ten bucks... it was half a metre of printed fabric! 

It was around this time I made my very first pair of leggings. I talked to a friend who had a friend who agreed to be a model for me to see if they fit. She put them on, and they were terrible. So I cut them again, and sewed them again. I must have recut those things ten times...and finally, they fit. It was at that point that something remarkable happened: she asked if she could buy them. I couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day. 

So I threw myself into it with a passion. I would spend 5–6 hours a day on the sewing machine trying to figure out how to sew properly. Most nights I would go to bed well past midnight, covered in bits of fabric and thread. 

I bought a tent and went to the markets. I turned up at 5:30am every Saturday and stood around in the sun all day, trying to sell my leggings. But in the meantime, something very special was happening...online. People were finding my leggings, not through shops, not at the markets, but through my blog! I would talk about all the things I was making... and they would email me asking to buy them.

So, I went online. And that's where we have been ever since."

From a single sewing machine on a kitchen table in 2009, where our late founder, jL, documented his sewing misadventures and love of stretch fabrics on an online blog, BlackMilk quickly became known for two things: making ridiculously awesome, shiny leggings, and drawing thousands of people from around the globe to a passionate online community unlike anything the fashion world had ever seen.

We still make ridiculously awesome leggings – and truth be told we sell more dresses than we do leggings these days. We see ourselves as more of a costume department than a fashion label, we dress people for the stories they want to tell.

We make popular culture inspired, alternative clothes for those who dare to be different and empower our community to stand out from the crowd... those who wanna dress both themselves – and their alter ego.

We don’t take anything too seriously – except the things that matter, like making sure our pieces are high-quality, ethically manufactured and created with our community in mind.

So who do you wanna be today?