Too Many Tights!

Back To The Future...

Hey Sharkie community!

jL from Black Milk here, very excited to blog about all the exciting things that are going on a BM at the moment. Grab yourself a bag of chips, a bottle of Mountain Dew, and another bag of chips, because we have a lot to talk about! 

1. September collection: BACK TO THE FUTURE

Remember this awesome movie?

I certainly do. It made me want to ride a skateboard, wear a puffy orange vest and drive a DeLorean (none of which I actually ever did, so disappointing).

We hope that you will find our September Collection just as awesome. :)

You see, our September clothes are all about giving you that retro feel. Maybe a little de ja vu. (Just to be clear, this is a Black Milk designer collection, NOT a Back to the Future licensed collection!)

As you guys are probably aware, we are transitioning at the moment to a completely new (or completely old?) system of creating our collections. We are going back to strong narratives, great stories, and really romancing the releases. I'm excited about that!

Of course, because we are transitioning, there will be a transitional period - and for us, that's September. We looked over the pieces we had coming out in September and asked ourselves - what  unifies theses pieces, if anything?

The answer was that there was some element of 'throwback' in all the pieces.

The most obvious one was this:

So we decided to take that as our starting point and envision this collection as 'Back to the Future'.

That means you are going to see a lot of things that remind you of great pieces you have probably seen before.

Now, because we are this transitional month, we aren't going to be able to really tell the story as powerfully as we would like to. Not to worry, it's still a fantastic little collection (I think it's around 26 pieces?) and I'm sure you will find a couple of pieces you will love. ;)

2. So after we have gone Back to the Future, we are going to spend a Night at the Museum. 

This idea started off as a little ammo, and then got all growed up - and it's now a beast!

We started off with the idea of bringing back a couple of museum items to celebrate my birthday (Happy Birthday?! Your present is clothes - for other people!) 

However, after talking to lots of girls who felt sad that they had missed out on clothes since the weekly releases, we decided that we would give the Sharkie community an opportunity to have another crack at their favourite pieces.

And so we did. :) So Night at the Museum features the clothes we are bringing back for my birthday AND some pieces from the weekly drops. There are some limitations because we are not using any shiny fabric at the moment, but rest assured, a lot of those shiny leggings we have discontinued will be back once we replace our shiny fabric (which we are really close to doing!)

3. I noticed someone posted this pic. This was one of first pairs of printed leggings I ever created!

 

 It was made form this artwork:

Cool, huh? Maybe worth a revisit. I made a swimsuit with it as well:

 

I still have a special place in my heart for this swim. It was either the first or second one I ever made, I sewed it myself and it took around 2 hours! (Sophee, if you are seeing this, love your pics, thanks for modelling for me!)

3. Speaking of voting on things coming back... this little bad boy seems to have generated a bit of buzz. It is what we call the Black Hole Swim:

UPDATE: The artwork we used for this piece doesn't have great resolution, so we need to rework it a bit. Be patient, you'll see this again once we can enlarge the art!

4. Hello Los Angeles! We have been slowly doing more events in LA, and one of them was a recent pool party at the Roosevelt!

I think I need to visit LA. How does next week sound?

 And another thing - Angelenos, get ready for a SAMPLE SALE.

Because it's happening! :) Details here

5. I'm not sure if people realise how much it means to us when peeps take the time to something as simple - and as powerful - as to express something positive, kind or encouraging about the job we do.

It means a lot. Working in an independent fashion company isn't easy, and when people take the time to say something nice about us, well, it's pretty special. :)

 

And we will never say no to donuts...

6. Do you Periscope!?

Imagine if you could tap into live video broadcasts from Black Milk every day and see sneak peeks, cute outfits, and the Black Milk team generally just having a blast - all live! Well, you can. :)

Q: What is Periscope?

A: It's a live feed app that allows you to receive notifications when someone you follow (Black Milk in this case) is broadcasting, allowing you to get into the feed and watch it live!

It's connected to Twitter, so if you have a Twitter account it's pretty easy to sign up. Check it out here. 

p.s. I know a lot of girls see this stuff and think "ANOTHER social media thing I need to get.... ugh... srsly..." But this one is really fun. Give it a go, I think you'll love it.

7. What is this I hear about Sharkiedam 2015?!?!?!

Poling on poles!

Hanging out with Vincent!

 

Um... doing this... thing.

Well, my friends, it seems that Sharkies love to travel to cool places, and have a good time - who am I to stand in the way!

We see pics like this all the time that get us excited about bringing girls together for good times:

I know there has been a lot of talk about the future of Sharkiecon and Black Milk events in general. It's really simple, we are kind of in a transitional period as a company so we don't feel like we are in a position where we can do great events and feel confident that we can really nail it. However, we are in the middle of building an awesome new events team at the moment and I am confident we we will succeed.

Stick with us guys, the fun times will roll in 2016. ;)

Having said that, we will be having a big Sharkie party in November for our birthday! 

8. Okay, let's talk about Green Galaxy. Peeps love green Galaxy, and here's why:

 We were going to bring back some Green Galaxy clothes, but then we thought "Hey, there is so much love for Green Galaxy, why don't we create some brand new GG stuff, and let the Sharkie community vote on what they want to see?!"

Watch this space. 

9. GYM! This got sneaked and girls love it.

 

It's moving to the top of the list...

Internet hugs!

x jL

Special Announcement! :)

Hi guys

jL here from Black Milk with a very exciting announcement (yes, another one)! :)

As many of you are probably aware, we have been trying lots of different things with our little brand lately, experimenting with different ways of doing what we do and seeing what works. As you might expect, we've had some hits and some misses! 

The great thing for us at Black Milk is that we have an incredibly passionate fan base and we are in constant communication with the Black Milk community about what they're and not loving about what we do. This is great for us because we want to figure out what really works for our community, as well as for us as a business. Of course, it’s never that simple because peeps often want different things from us as a brand, and trying to keep everyone happy is kind of impossible (who knew!?). However, we want to make sure we are doing the best we can, and for us that means creating an environment where you guys can see our clothes, fall in love with them, and buy them! If that’s happening, we’re happy. :)

 

Lately, we have spent quite a bit of time talking with customers about what they want to see from the brand in the future, and they have been very open with us. 

 

Based on these discussions, as well as reflecting on who we want to be as a brand, we have made some big decisions. Today we want to share those decisions with you. (Yes, more big decisions! I feel like we are doing this a lot lately, awkward...)

The first decision we have made is to change the way we do our photography. 

 

We have been trying to communicate with customers what to expect from our clothes using street style photographs. The photos look great, but unfortunately, the fact that we are shooting them outside has meant that, depending on the weather, we are getting a lot of variation in colour tones. We have spoken with a lot of customers who tell us that they are finding it hard to figure out exactly what to expect from the clothes they are buying in terms of the colours and appearance of the fabric. So we have decided to go back to using studio shots on our website. We will make sure we get all our colours right and give you as much information as you need to make a decision about whether this piece of clothing is for you!

Of course, we will be doing lots of other types of photography as well -  staff styling pics, blogger pics, collection story pics, videos etc. We want you to feel as excited about the clothes as we are before you get the chance to buy them. 

 

So that's the first thing you are going to notice, we will be going back to studio shots on the website. :)

The second thing that we have been thinking about is the weekly release schedule. We have been testing the weekly release system for the last three months and it has definitely divided opinion within the Black Milk community. There are basically three opinions on this one: those who love it, those who hate it, and those who don't care and just buy whatever they want from us anyway!

 

In so many ways, the weekly releases have been really positive. So many peeps have talked to us about how Friday morning has now become the highlight of their week and how they love it that there is always something new to see. Of course, that was the idea behind the weekly releases, it was to allow us to keep showing you guys new clothes as regularly as possible. We loved the idea that every week there would be something new to see and new to buy. So that's where the weekly releases have been a lot of fun. :)

However, we have noticed that there have been a couple of unintended consequences of the weekly release model which have not been positive for some girls in the Black Milk community.

The first consequence has been that we have had to restrict the availability of our clothes. Because we have been releasing every week we need to cut off as many products as possible before the next release to avoid our systems get clogged and creating a big confusing logistical nightmare. However, this has meant that a lot of peeps are missing out on pieces that they love, which sucks for us (because we want them to buy our stuff) and for them (because they want to buy our stuff). We know a lot of you guys like the excitement of getting in quick to get the limited pieces, but some people are finding it stressful and overwhelming and feel like they need wider timeframes for shopping. 

 

The second consequence of the weekly drops relates to something quite special to Black Milk and Sharkie culture: storytelling.

When we moved to the weekly release schedule, we had to decide how we felt about partially losing the storytelling aspect of our brand. We still intended to have a couple of big releases every year where we would include a strong storytelling element for the collection, but by and large we anticipated that storytelling would stop being a big part of our brand. It wasn't an easy decision to make because there was a real question about whether storytelling was simply a nice little extra to have - but not really that much of a big deal - or whether it was an intrinsic part of who we are.

After speaking to a lot of peeps it seems that for so many, storytelling is at the heart of who we are as a brand! Yeah, there are times when you guys just want our clothes RIGHT NOW because you just want our clothes RIGHT NOW, but for many our clothes are so much more than just something to wear, and that storytelling element is a very special part of what they love bout Black Milk.

And, I suppose, it is for me as well. 

About six months ago I wrote down a couple of sentences that encapsulated what we wanted for Black Milk to be as a brand. One of these sentences was as follows:

"We are the costume department for the girls in our imagination whose stories we want to tell."

This sentence was meant to act as a guiding principle for our design department. We would start with a simple idea that we were excited about, then we would imagine a world for that idea. Next we would imagine the girl who lived in in that world, build a story for her, and dress her! Finally, of course, we would tell you guys her story and let you shop from her wardrobe. :)

For me as a designer, I find this really exciting! 

 

If we are to truly have this kind of creativity at the heart of our brand, we are going to have to get back to creating wonderful magical stories for our peeps to enjoy! And that's what we intend to do. :)

Of course, it is going to be very challenging for us as a brand to be able to really build up and romance our stories if we are releasing random products every week. 

 

So we have decided that we will be radically overhauling our current release structure. We are planning on no longer having releases every week and instead going back to one big exciting release per month, with a fun little ammo between collections as we feel the need.

We know that for a lot of peeps this will be bittersweet news because they have really been enjoying the weekly drops. We can understand that because we have really enjoyed it and it's a buzz for us to be able to show you girls new things every week. However, if making this change enables us to bring back that storytelling element into Black Milk, something that makes us unique, then we think it will be for the best.

It will also enable us to have more time between seeing the pieces we plan on releasing, and actually making them available! That means that you will have longer to save for the clothes you want to buy before you actually buy them on release day. It will also enable us to have products available for longer. :)

So even though you might have to wait a little bit longer for that collection to drop, we really hope that the coherence of the collections and the big build up will make our clothing collections a lot more exciting!

Of course, it should never get boring because we plan on doing an ammo  as well each month, so there will be other fun little pieces you can buy outside of the collections. 

If you are concerned that your Friday and Tuesday mornings are going to be a lot less interesting from now on - let me assure you that we will continue to do podcasts, staff styling photos, and lots more behind the scenes pics and videos. In fact, we’re planning on doing a much greater variety of photographic and video content to keep the party going. There will be the same amount of cool clothes, we will just give you a lot more time and info so you can make a decision about whether you want to buy them or not!

So that’s it! My apologies that we have had to make so many changes lately, we do feel bad about the fact that we have kept changing and we know it must be very frustrating for some of you guys. Please understand that we don’t make these changes because we have nothing better to do, we’re just really trying to figure out how to make this little clothing company work! At the end of the day we are trying to do something genuinely different in the fashion industry, and there's no 'how to' play book about doing what we are doing! A lot of the things we do we just kind of have to figure it out as we go. Ultimately, our greatest concern is that Black Milk is still here in ten, twenty  thirty years time! We want you to be able to go to Sharkiecon 2045 and say “You know I remember the very first Sharkiecon…" :)

 

So thanks so for your patience, your support and your continued passion for the clothes we create, even throughout all the crazy changes we have made lately. As always, your support means the world to us.

 

I want to conclude this little discussion with a little story that I hope gives you some insight into what we want to achieve.

 

At Supanova in Sydney I was wandering around the hall when I spotted a girl wearing a couple of Black Milk pieces. I introduced myself and told her that I thought she looked wonderful. We had a great little chat and she told me that although she didn’t have a lot of money she had been buying our clothes for years and loved what we did. This surprised me because she looked young. I asked her age and she told me she was 13.

 

“That makes me nervous.” I told her "You’re about to go through your teenage years, I hope you don’t, you know… grow out of it. I hope Black Milk is more than just a phase….”

 

She smiled sweetly and said “Don’t worry, I have been buying Black Milk since before I was ten years old and I plan on wearing your clothes for the rest of my life.”

 

It’s for her, and peeps like her who plan on feeling fabulous in Black Milk for the rest of their lives that we want to make this little clothing label great. :)

 

Internet hugs.

 

jL

 

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q. Does that mean that every single month we can expect a strong, consistent theme?

 

Probably not every month. The thing we are going to have to work on is getting the balance right between conceptual collections, and these “guys just want this RIGHT NOW!”. There may be months where it is a little more random - a bit like the Hot Little Bosses collections from a few years back. There will also be collections which have a conceptual core but have some other pieces thrown in there. For example, if we do a basics collection, there will be a lot of awesome stuff, but we know that you guys are still going to want some great printed leggings to go with their basics. :)

Q. When will the big themed collections start?

 

September! August 26th (today for most of you reading this!) will be our last weekly drop and from this point on we will be moving to big monthly releases. This is what you can expect over the next few months:

 

BACK TO THE FUTURE - Sept 8th

A super fun selection of some of out most popular prints coming back in other styles, with a couple of really exciting ideas coming straight out of the 90s...

 

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM - Sept 22nd

We said we would bring back some pieces from the museum, this is when you can get them. :)

 

LADY ANARCHY: A NEO-VICTORIAN ODYSSEY - Oct 6th

The most anticipated collection of the year, Black Milk Halloween!

 

DOCTOR WHO - Nov 3rd

The very last licensed deal of the year, one that no true Whovian will want to miss.

 

Q. Will we see postcards and other fun stuff again?

 

We hope so! We can’t give any guarantees, but we really want to bring back the fun, and those little things we think do contribute to the fun.

 

Q. What about previews? 

 

Back on!!! Every month in Brisbane and LA we will have pre release previews where peeps will be able to come in and get the collection early. :) Who knows, if everything goes well we could even look at previews in other cities…. sound like fun?

 

Q. Will there be big themed photoshoots for the collections?

 

Yep! We want our stories to be romanced through our photoshoots, and we know that our peeps really love those great ‘cinematic’ style images. 

 

Q. Does that mean you will be releasing more clothes, or less?

 

Probably the same amount. :)

World Cat Day Release

Remember all the way back to 2014 (it’s been a while, I know) when we did the Lost Puppies collection?

We donated $1 from every collection piece you guys bought to the RSPCA. And guess what? In the end, we raised more than $10,000. That’s a whole lot of happy pups.

We were so excited about this that we decided to do it again. This time, it’s personal. No wait, I meant to say cats. This time, it’s cats.

One thing we’ve noticed about BMHQ is that there is a disproportional amount of cat lovers here. Seriously, you should see how much cat-themed stuff is around this office.

So it only made sense that we teamed up with RSPCA once again to help out our kitty friends. And so begins World Cat Day!

What is World Cat Day, you ask? Well, just like with Lost Puppies and Shark Week, we’ve released some special cat pieces in today’s drop. We will donate $1 from every cat piece sold to the RSPCA!

 

Last week, we kicked things off with a visit to RSPCA’s Brisbane Animal Care Campus in Wacol. BM staff went out to meet some kittens and chat to RSPCA staff about the awesome work they do. 

And to do a bit of this:

 

And on Saturday, we hosted an RSPCA pop-up kitten adoption centre right here in our concept store! Can you imagine the chaos when BM staff members were told “some of you get to come to work and play with kittens all day.” I’m telling you, the claws came out. It was a cat-astrophe. 

Image by: Sam Collins

“No, I iz the cutest!”

 

Image by: Sam Collins

“Want to touch the shiny…”

 

“But Black Milk,” I hear you say, “I want to give even MOAR money to the kittehs!”

Well you totally can! Tuesday 17^th August is RSPCA’s Cupcake Day, which is a super important day for them – generous people all over Australia eat cupcakes and donate money towards the hundreds of thousands of animals the RSPCA helps out every year. Raising funds through the power of deliciousness = awesome. 

You can set up your own Cupcake Day party here, or you can be part of Team BM and donate money through our Everyday Hero page here. We promise to eat a cupcake or two for you.

So, in summary, there are three ways you can raise much-needed money for the RSPCA:

            1.   Grab one of our World Cat Day pieces. We will give $1 of your purchase to the RSPCA, and                     you get to wear cats on your bodeh. Win-win.

            2.    Host your own Cupcake Day party, nom cupcakes. Also win-win.

            3.    Donate to our Cupcake Day event through our Everyday Hero link. We get a sugar rush and                     put that extra energy towards making more amazing clothes for you. ALSO a win-win. 

Love, Team BM

(Bonus crazy cat with Crazy Cat Lady toasties!)

Importance!

Hi guys

Lots to talk about today. :)

But first - this is what happens when our customers BRING US DONUTS!!! 

Just one of the many reasons we love the incredible Sharkies who love our clothes. :)

 

=============================

 

 1. IMPORTANT FABRIC ANNOUNCEMENT!

We have a really important change coming up soon, and we want to keep you guys in the loop. :)

As you might be aware, we have been working really hard over the last month to ensure that the fabrics we use for our leggings have the right quality and the right consistency. Unfortunately, there have been situations where we have received batches of fabrics which were just not as great as we needed them to be. We know that the girls who buy our leggings do so because they want something amazing, and we want to make sure that when you shop with us you are getting something amazing!

So after countless hours of fabric testing and print testing we have made an important decision. :) (By the way, when I say countless hours, I mean it! The team has been amazing, working night and day cutting, stretching, printing, and weighing fabrics to figure out whether they are acceptable or not.)

We have made a decision to change the fabric on our basic printed leggings.

We have looked at the shiny fabric we have been using for our basic leggings, and unfortunately we have found that we are sometimes getting unacceptable weight variations within rolls, and that just makes us a little bit nervous! We have gone through all our rolls to make sure that the stuff we are selling at the moment is all at the correct weight, so whatever you buy now has been passed (yay!). However, we need to make sure that we are getting quality consistently - and we don’t want to have to check every metre of every roll to make sure we get it!

So we’ve made the big call - we will be phasing out this fabric, starting today. Of course, we do have some good fabric left, so we will be doing some restocks, but after it is all gone we will no longer be using this fabric in our standard printed leggings. Our apologies if you really love it, it is a fantastic fabric, but we just don’t want to take the risk that some fabrics will sneak through that are not up to scratch.

However - there is good news!

First, we will be working really hard to find a replacement, and hopefully will have something light and shiny for you as soon as possible!

Second, we have developed a fantastic new version of our basic printed legging. This style uses the fabric that we use to create our HWMF (High Waisted, Matte Finish) leggings. So the new version of our basic leggings will be made with that fabric (by the way, if you don't dig the high waisted look, don't worry, these new leggings are just MF, not HW!). We have been testing them on some girls at the office, and so far everyone has been super positive about them. The fabric is great, so if you are happy with a little more fabric weight, and you like the matte finish, you will definitely love these!

Usually making a big fabric change is really risky because the manufacturer doesn't know 100% how the fabric will perform over time. The great news here is that we have been using the MF fabric for years now and we are very familiar with it! If you wear our swims, skater dresses, HWMF leggings, you will be familiar with this fabric as well. So don't worry, you're going to love them. :)

We are also continuing to experiment with ink saturation, and garment fit, and we are confident that our clothes are going to get better and better. :)

A massive thank you to everybody for your patience. We really take fabric quality seriously, and we are going to do whatever we need to do to make sure that our customers are getting the best leggings in the world.

Cool?

QUESTIONS!

What is happening to the leggings already on the site?

• We are going to remove the option for MTO on leggings that use the old fabric
• HWMF will still continue as normal
• We still have a good amount of the old fabric left, so we will test it all to establish what it is acceptable, then we will stock up on our staple leggings using the old fabric that we are happy with
• When we reach the end of the fabric, we will LIMIT the products
• Our staples will come back on the new fabric (MF)
• Every pair will be checked for quality before it is shipped out
• In the future, we will also release a couple of styles in the US in the old fabric that we have already made.

 

I've already placed an order, will my leggings arrive in the new or old fabric?

• All current orders will arrive in the old fabric 
• All products will be going through a fabric weight and sheer print test before they get to you

 

I purchased these leggings recently and am not happy, can I return them or swap for the MF fabric?

• We are always happy to do returns if our customers are not 100% satisfied with their purchase, however we can't do swaps for different fabrics. 

 

When will the new fabric be available?

• We will start in the next couple of weeks once all of our fit approvals are complete  

 

What is the sizing like? Should I stick to my usual size?

• Yep!

 

Will my leggings be the same colour as what is pictured on the website?

• At the time of purchase, yes! We will reshoot the products to make sure that you are looking at exactly what you will receive

 

How do I know if what I am ordering is the old or MF fabric? 

• We will keep it in the title! For example, Bla bla HWMF Leggings, Bla Bla MF Leggings

 If you have any other questions, feel free to ask and we'll answer as best we can!

:)

p.s. A few girls have asked me what  the benefits of the new fabric are, particularly with respect to sheerness. Good question! The good news is that - in my experience - our MF fabric has a nice tight weave and doesn't let through much light. Obviously you need to consider the colour of the print, and how busy it is -  but as a general rule, I'm quite confident that  sheerness shouldn't be a problem. Yay!

However, I did want to quickly mention another challenge with printed leggings that some girls mistake for sheerness. It's something that we call in the industry 'grinning'. Grinning refers to the tendency of white fibres to show through on a stretch fabric when it is stretched making the colours appear lighter. It is an effect that occurs when white fabrics are printed, rather than dyed. Occasionally girls will see grinning and assume that the fabric is going see through. It's not, what is happening is that stretching the fabric is allowing some of the underlying  white fibres to become visible. This is a natural consequence of using the print technology that we use and unfortunately there is actually not a huge amount we can do about it. However, on the up side, using this print technology means that we can use incredibly detailed artwork, and also have the ability to specifically place the prints on exact sections of the garment. It's such an awesome technology that we are willing to put up with a little grinning!

INTERESTING FACT: Did you know that there is one print we use that actually requires grinning to bring out the artwork!!! Can you guess what it is? ;)

(Link)

2. *SIGH* ... Whenever I see these leggings I think about having another go at them. The chains kept breaking on my first attempt.

Much cool.

 

3. Teal Galaxy... how good? We should put this on more things. All the things perhaps.

 Yep, definitely all the things...  

(Link)

4. I have been informed by some reliable sources that there is a mighty need among some girls for more bummers. Is this true?!

(Link)

They are rather rad, now that you mention it...

I think the reason we haven't been doing many bummers lately is because we started doing lots of short shorts. For those who don't know, short shorts are shorts that are really short. 

(Link)

And you can dance on poles in them and look amazing. 

(Link)

5. Sharkies are so talented...

(Link)

6. GYM UPDATE!!!

Printed Ninjas - we finally made some!!! Brand new fabric, super stretchy, super comfortable, and they are looking awesome. ;) Watch this space...

7. Another cool thing I wanted to mention to those interested. We have made a decision at BM that we want to get a lot more information to our customers - or potential customers - with video. So we are working on an idea that I am calling (drum roll, drum roll) the Black Milk Top 5. Or top 10. Haven't yet decided on that one.

Basically, the idea is that we can communicate with you guys about all the cool stuff that is going on at BM. We want you to take you behind the scenes so you can hear about all the cool things we have planned.

Stay tuned, you should see the first one soon. :)

 8. Good news - as you might have heard (probably on this blog) we have reworked the basic BM swimsuit cut and it is looking really good. We will have a little try on session in Brisbane soon! So many cool swim cuts coming this year, including this little gem ... So cute. :)

 

And yes, this is the same cut we used for the Jawesome Swim. :) 

Hugs and kisses. :)

x

jL

 

 

 

Legs, legs, and more legs

Hi guys

jL from Black Milk here with another friendly public service announcement!

Today I want to spend a little bit of time addressing a couple of questions I have been asked this week about Black Milk printed leggings, particularly with respect to sheerness. (By the way, I am referring here to the standard Black Milk printed leggings, not other printed styles like HWMF, or Toasties). 

To make things easier, I'll try to give you as much information as possible by addressing three major questions.

1. What kind of sheerness/opacity should we expect from normal Black Milk printed leggings? 
2. What problems need to be corrected with the sheerness/opacity of our printed leggings?
3. Moving forward, what are we doing to fix these issues?

Cool? Okay, let's get into it. :)

 

1. What kind of sheerness/opacity should we expect from normal Black Milk printed leggings? 

Sheerness refers to the extent to which light gets through a particular fabric. We can also call this the fabric's 'opacity', i.e to what extent the fabric is opaque. Is sheerness a good or a bad thing? Well, it depends! For example, with pantyhose it's personal preference whether you want something sheer or opaque. Both can be manufactured to suit your preference. 

Of course, there are often trade-offs involved. If you want a pair of pantyhose that is very light, you are going to have to accept that they will be sheer. If you want a pair of pantyhose that is fully opaque, you are going to end up with quite a thick fabric on your legs. That's just where the technology is at. 

And it's not just in pantyhose where these trade offs happen either. For example, it is common knowledge that most sports compression leggings go very see through at the back. The companies that produce these leggings (and charge premium prices for them) are perfectly aware of the fact that there are leggings are very see-through, but they are willing to make that trade off so that they can keep the fabric thin and comfortable. 

 

For us as a company, we similarly make these kinds of trade offs. For example, I absolutely love the Black Milk Matte leggings. They are wonderfully soft and stretchy, but not particularly opaque. We could get something much more opaque, but it would be far less wearable in terms of fit and comfort. So we go with the Black Milk Matte fabric because it has so many great qualities. It's a trade off.

At Black Milk there is only one product line where we take a really strong stand on opacity, and that is our black gym leggings. If you wear our black gym leggings, they will not go see-through! Of course there are other fabrics that you are always going to be safe wearing in terms of opacity. For example PVC, just rock that all day every day in your most colourful undies, no worries.

Okay, so let's get specific and talk about Black Milk printed fabrics.

 

Several things are going to affect how sheer/opaque a printed fabric is. There is the composition of the fabric, the weave of the fabric, the colour of the fabric, and the type of design we actually printed on the fabric.

Because we are based in Queensland (where it is quite hot) we tend to like lighter fabrics. It's a great way to not die in summer. As a result the standard Black Milk printed fabric is actually quite light. This means it's not as opaque as other fabrics, which are much heavier. Couple that with the fact that some of our prints are quite light in colour, there are some styles where you are simply not going to get as much coverage as you would with a heavier fabric and a darker colour!

For example, one of the first printed leggings I ever made was the Anatomists, I did a black version and a white version. The white version was printed on a light Black Milk fabric and had no ink on your backside at all! Needless to say you didn't get a lot of coverage from that particular garment. So in this particular case, if girls wanted to wear the white Anatomists, they had to go with, ideally, a nude G string. 

 

Sometimes I get asked whether, if you get a really, really good fabric, is it possible to wear dark underwear with a light design and the dark colour won't come though. Unfortunately that is just not the case! From my own experience, it doesn't matter how good the fabric is, if you are wearing dark underwear under leggings with a light design and light fabric, the colour will, to some degree, come through. Easily fixed, just wear light underwear! Of course, if that's not your jam, just stick to thicker fabrics like HWMF or Toasties. :) 

So the extent of the sheerness of a pair of printed leggings really depends on the design, and the lightness or darkness of the colours. (TIP: It's always good to snip off the white tag on your leggings because it can show through a little, depending on the colour of the leggings. Due to the lightness of the fabric that we are using, the white tag may be visible through the leggings but doesn't mean they're faulty. Having said that, we are working on some black tags at the moment which will work better for the darker designs).

However, there is one other variable that can unfortunately affect the sheerness of the fabric. This is unexpected variations in fabric weight. When we buy a fabric, we are given its weight specs, and we assume that what we receive is accurate to those specs. In a perfect world, that's how it would work. However, as we have learnt, it doesn't always work that way, which brings me to my next question...

 

2. So what problems need to be corrected with the sheerness/opacity of our printed leggings?

When we buy a fabric from a supplier, there is a standard agreement that there is an acceptable weight variation tolerance of around +/- 5%. Our current QC process has been to take random swatches from a number of rolls (not all) and record the lowest value and the highest value for each batch of fabric we receive, to make sure that it is within tolerance.

Going back through our records, the fabric we are receiving from our supplier has been generally within tolerance (5%). If there was some variance, we were finding that the fabric was generally coming through heavier rather than lighter. That's a good thing.

However, after talking to customers recently we decided to QC every roll from the latest batch of fabric we received. We found that there were quite a number of rolls (but not all) that fell towards -5%. So, although strictly speaking the quality was within tolerance, there were more weights towards the -5%, which is different to what we have received in the past. 

And that's a problem. We are extremely frustrated that these fabric variances might be preventing us from fulfilling the promise that we make to every single customer - to give them the most awesome pair of leggings we can. 

The products we produced with rolls from this batch were the following:

• Tartan Navy leggings
• Galaxy Teal leggings

To make matters more complicated, we also made some garments in these styles using rolls from other batches that had much better fabric weights (same fabric, different batch). 

So the long and the short of it is this, if you have bought one of these styles of leggings and you love them and are happy with them - awesome, keep rocking out like the total boss that you are. However, if for whatever reason, you're not 100% happy with what you have (maybe because of the fabric weight), we're more than happy to give you a full refund and hopefully we will get this situation turned around as soon as possible so that you can get back to rocking out like the total boss that you are!

 

And also, I want to again take the time to apologise for any experience you have had shopping with us that has not been 100% awesome.

Of course, please bear in mind that just because there is a degree of sheerness with your printed leggings, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are faulty! As I was saying, we do use a light fabric, and so some degree of sheerness is perfectly normal and to be expected. :)

So where do we go from here?

 

3. Moving forward, what are we doing to fix these issues?

A lot. Let me reassure you, we are really working hard on this issue!

First, we are conducting more tests currently to determine exactly what weight is or isn’t acceptable and then we will be renegotiating a new standard with our supplier. We want something that our customers absolutely love, and we want it consistently.

We will not release any more regular printed leggings until we are confident they are of the right quality (so you will see no regular leggings in the latest release on 21 July). We will also be going through our warehouse and checking the quality of all the printed leggings we have, as well as weighing each roll of this fabric that we receive before we start manufacturing.

So that's the plan!

 

I hope that all this information is helpful.  I'm sure there are many other questions that people want to ask, please be patient, and we will get around to answering them! (We are looking at doing a lot more video content to keep you guys up to date with all the information you need, as well as all the cool things that are going on at Black Milk). 

As you can imagine, this is a super challenging period in Black Milk at the moment, but I know that all the team at Black Milk are working really hard to create products that we and our customers are really proud of. Your patience is appreciated!

Again, a massive thank you to all the girls who have continued to support us and believe in us as we continue on this exciting little fashion adventure that is Black Milk. :)

 

jL

Let's get down to business

Hi guys!

jL from Black Milk here, :) just checking in to give you a little bit of an update. (I am actually stranded in Indonesia at the moment by a volcano so probably a good time to blog!)

I spoke with a few of the girls at Black Milk who have asked me to comment on some of the questions that we have been asked recently, and give a bit of clarity to some of the issues.

No problem at all - let’s talk about it!

 

Before I get into the specifics, I do want to make something really clear – that if you have for whatever reason had a less than awesome/amazing/stellar experience in shopping with Black Milk, I am really sorry. I apologise. Any failures that we have as a company ultimately go back to me, and I am truly sorry.

I have never worked anywhere in my life where people care so deeply about creating something amazing. The team at BM constantly go above and beyond, to the point where we have to tell them to stop working! These guys really feel the pressure to do a great job, day in day out. They love Black Milk and they really believe that we can make it great.

I remember in the early days of Black Milk when I sewed everything myself, personally feeling an incredible amount of pressure to live up to the expectations of my new customers – all the while knowing the awful truth… that I really had no idea what I was doing! I will never forget one afternoon walking to the Post Office with a huge bag of Black Spartans and hearing the voice of self doubt in my head “No one is going to want to wear your clothes, just throw them all in the bin and save yourself the embarrassment…” At that moment I saw a large rubbish bin out the front of the Post Office. I had to make a decision – take a leap of faith, or admit that I was kidding myself. I walked past the bin and posted the leggings, and went home and anxiously waited to see what girls would say. I was so nervous.

That desire to do a great job is still part of BM culture.

However, building a great business is actually really hard! Even though you work really hard to make everything perfect, sometimes it just doesn’t go right. A great business thinker once said that growing a business is a bit like building an aircraft while it’s flying. If you have ever been part of a business attempting to scale up, you’ll know how true this is! So please understand that if problems happen, it’s not because the business is evil, or filled with wicked lazy jerks – it’s just because it’s just damn hard to build and grow a business! (If anyone doubts this, I would recommend starting a clothing manufacturing operation from scratch in Australia with no money!)

Anyway, that being said, we are excited about making BM better than ever, so let me answer a few questions, and then tell you the plan going forwards. Cool? Let’s go…

 

 1. “Hey, have you guys changed the printed fabric you use for your normal printed leggings?”

No, we really haven’t. We have been buying the same fabric from the same company for our printed leggings for the last 6 years!

Of course, that’s not to say that there can’t be problems – of course there can – but if problems do arise, they are not because we made a decision to change fabric.

I personally find it strange that we have been accused of changing fabric in order to save money. Think about it - if we were really interested in saving money in the manufacturing process – do you think we would be manufacturing in Australia and the USA? (Answer: Nooooo). 

Black Milk is not a fabric manufacturer. We don’t actually create any of our fabrics, we just buy them. Like any business, we are part of a complex system with thousands of variables. We sit in the middle of a supply chain and in many ways we are at the mercy of our suppliers (who are at the mercy of their suppliers).

If our sewing sucks, or our designs suck - we can deal with that, because we are a sewing and design company. We can take 100% responsibility for those things. When fabric issues arise, we can often feel a little powerless. What happened? Was it manufactured wrong? Was it stored wrong? Did a supplier change something? Did it spend too long on a boat? Should it have been rested before being cut? After being cut? Did a wrong label get on something? Is it a problem with a certain part of the fabric roll, or the whole roll? Or the entire batch of fabric? You get the point.

Does this mean that we throw our hands in the air and give up? Hell no! We are super passionate about our fabrics and making sure they are the most awesome in the world! We stand or fall based on the quality of our fabrics and we are going to do whatever needs to be done to make sure we are continuing to get consistently great fabrics.

 

So… what’s the plan?

Well, we are working really hard with our suppliers to get more consistency and quality in our fabrics. We are weighing them, going through different batches and doing whatever we need to do to make sure that everything we send out is as good as we can get it.

I’d love to say that all our issues will get fixed overnight, but of course, with stuff like this it just takes time. If we want to get it right, we are going to have to spend the time getting it right.

Your patience is appreciated. :)

 

 2. “Have you guys changed the sizing on this product…?

As a general rule… no. But for sure, sizing consistency is an area where we certainly need to do much better!  

So I want to apologise for a lot of mistakes that we have made with our sizing. We need to do much better (and we will!). It’s something that we are going to be really focusing on over the next few months, so your patience is (as always) appreciated as we really look at improving our fit and consistency. :)

 

Okay, let‘s talk about what sizing consistency is, and is not.

Sizing consistency does not mean that we should expect different clothes of the same size to be the same shape. Rather, sizing consistency means that if you buy an S garment, and you have an S body, you should put it on and feel good! If you have a S body and you put on a M garment, it should feel a little on the loose side, and if you put on an XS, it should feel on the tight side!

To use an extreme example, if you measure the waistband on a pair of pantyhose and compare it with the waistband on a skater skirt, you shouldn’t be surprised that you get a very different number. To use a less extreme example, don’t be surprised that you won’t find the same measurements in the waist section of a printed play dress, an Awesome play dress, and a Matte play dress. They are different fabrics, with different qualities, so they are sized differently! And of course, over time fabrics change as well.

We are not aiming for consistent measurements in the shape of the garment, we are aiming for a consistent fit experience for the customer. At the most basic level, this means that if you buy something that is your size, and it fits you, mission accomplished! That’s the promise we want to make to you, and that’s the promise we need to keep. :)

Do we ever completely change the fit of a garment? Yeah, occasionally. If we see a problem across the board with a product’s sizing, we will admit we have made a mistake and make a change. Usually it will be a full size up or a full size down. In those situations we are going to have to do a great job communicating with you, the customer, about what you should expect. In the past we probably haven’t done a great job with getting this information out there, but in the future, we’ll make sure that any major size changes are thoroughly communicated. :)

 

So what’s the plan to improve BM’s fit and consistency? 

The first thing that needs to happen is that we need to have a really good look at our processes to make sure we are doing the best job possible. And we have already started that process.

And we would also appreciate your help. :)

First, we need to make sure our sizing chart is accurate. I have been working with the team for the last few weeks on revamping it and I think we have made some improvements. We would like to test the accuracy of our chart on some of our customers to make sure we are on the right track. We will be looking at holding an event for anyone interested (who is in Brisbane) to get measured and see where they sit on our improved size chart. 

Second, I am thinking it might be good to hold more ‘fit feedback’ events in both Brisbane and LA, where girls can come in and experience the new shapes we are working on and tell us how they feel. You guys are the ones wearing the clothes we create, we want you to be confident in them!

Also, we want to let you girls have a closer experience of how their clothes are actually made. This means that we are going to be holding more BM tours so girls can see the whole process that happens to create their clothes. I will be happy to personally answer any questions people have on these tours.

Should be fun!

 

Lastly, on a more personal note…

Black Milk started on a kitchen table by a guy with two dodgy sewing machines who had no idea what he was doing. He fell in love with the process of making clothes, and so, despite the lack of qualifications or talent (lol) he just kept going. No, I didn’t really know what I was doing, yes, I made lots of mistakes, but I got better. And despite the mistakes, there were always girls who believed in what I was doing, and kept believing in what I was doing. For those girls I am unbelievably grateful!

We want to repay that faith in us. 

We’re at a new level now. The challenges are bigger, the stakes are higher, and the pressure is way more intense. If I could click my fingers at everything would be perfect right now, I’d click them. However, the fact is that we are just going to have to put our heads down and work hard to keep making BM better. 

 

We will keep working to create something great, if you keep believing that we can.  :) Deal?

Hugs.

jL 

Helping Sharks for Shark Week

HEY GUYS, MR SHARK HERE! 

 

Oh wow do I have a story for you. A little while ago, I met someone ALMOST AS FAMOUS AS ME. Crazy, I know, but it happened. 

Here’s a sneak peek…

 

O

M

G

 

Before I tell you aaaalll about it, apparently I have to say this bit first:

 

$1 from the sale of each Mr Shark or Jawesome pieces released on Tuesday 7^th July (that’s tomorrow) will go to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors and their Grey Nurse Shark conservation initiative. 

 

Yep, we’re celebrating Shark Week 2015 (which is on right now) by donating $1 from our Shark Week pieces to help conserve Queensland’s Grey Nurse Shark population, which is critically endangered by the way. Totally not cool. There’s more info on the Wildlife Warriors here and you should check it out, because they do super great work.

 

NOW BACK TO ME.

 

A little while ago, I had this great idea. Why don’t we celebrate Shark Week (the most important week of the entire year) with a super cool person that could help us look after all the endangered sharks out there? We would make some shark-themed clothes, and donate $1 from every one of those pieces sold. The obvious candidate was my new BFF, Bindi Irwin, and the Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors.

 

 

Bindi isn’t a shark herself, but she’s cool enough that she’s like an honorary shark. My friend Bindi invited me and the people who work for me onto her conservation boat, Croc One, to chat about how we can work together to save the critically endangered Queensland population of grey Nurse Sharks. We also released a turtle back into the ocean. Turtles aren’t quite as cool as sharks, but they’re ok, so check it out:

 

 

Basically, the Wildlife Warriors locate and protect the Grey Nurse Shark marine nurseries, looking after all the teeny tiny baby sharkies and making sure they grow up healthy. That is SUPER IMPORTANT to make sure the future is filled with these glorious, majestic, very handsome, and smart creatures.

 

 

Ok, let’s go over that first bit again. You might have forgotten, because seeing Bindi and I together in the same place was so cool it just filled up your entire brain, erasing all the other information in there.

 

$1 from every sale of the Mr Shark and Jawesome pieces will go to Wildlife Warriors to help them save my Grey Nurse Shark family. The Mr Shark pieces are, obviously, much better than the Jawesome ones, but the Jawesome pieces are okay too I guess – the important thing is to make sure you grab one, because they’re great and so are sharks.

 

- Mr Shark

It’s ART, darling.

We totally get art. It’s all about the emotion and symbolism, and how awesome it makes your legs look. Art is fine on walls, and we can’t fault the whole ‘gallery’ concept, but we’re a lot more enthusiastic about seeing it on…you. Which is why we’ve hooked up with an artist called Gino to create a pair of leggings for our birthday this year that will celebrate all things Black Milk Clothing. 

First things first, this is Gino:

Sorry ladies, he’s not single.

And no, that’s not why we picked him to draw us some leggings. This is why we picked him:

Dude’s got what we refer to in the art community as “mad skills”.

We feel like these certifiably mad skills would look absolutely killer on your bod, so we’re gonna make that happen. We’re big on things that look killer on ladies’ bodies, which is why we love working with awesome artists.

Gino is going to create one of his ‘Labyrinth’ style artworks just for us, filled with all the little things that you love about Black Milk. We’ll release Gino’s leggings around our birthday (which is in November, by the way, and yes we will totally accept cake), so he’s got plenty of time to create something ah-ma-zing. 

But here’s the best bit: Gino wants you to head over to Facebook and tell him what to draw! RIGHT NOW! Whether it’s your favourite print, your first piece, a hilarious memory from a meet-up – anything at all to do with Black Milk – tell Gino all about it and he might draw it into the Birthday Leggings design.

Get on over to Facebook and make your suggestion heard! Right now! Seriously, what are you still doing here?! Go on!

- AC

WEEKLY RELEASES: THE MASTER-POST

ATTENTION AWESOME PEOPLE! This is your official, super-informative, everything-you-need post about our new, weekly releases. Our first weekly release will be live at 9am (AEST) on Tuesday, 5 May and you can check out exactly what we’re releasing right here. 

To make sure you guys are all 100% across this fabulous new system, I’m giving you….

 

ALL THE INFO, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW:

Weekly Release Schedule.

Friday: Check out Pinterest. Our next release will be previewed on Pinterest every Friday.

Tuesday: New gear goes live. We will release 10-15 new things every Tuesday and you can find them here.

Wednesday: 24HR products go to LIMITED.

 

24HR Products Info.

We make some gear. We put that gear on the site, and mark the product as 24HR. You buy the gear.

If you don’t buy all the gear we made, after 24 hours the leftover gear becomes LIMITED.

If you buy all the gear we made, after 24 hours the product goes away and we ship your order.

If you buy more gear than we made (which you totally can) after 24 hours the product goes away, and we start making your gear for you. This means 24HR products will not sell out for the first 24 hours. Yay!

 

Help and advice.

Facebook.com/blackmilkclothing. Our social media whizz kids can get back to you super fast, any day of the week, so direct all your questions to them!

 

And in case anyone needs a reminder… 

WHY THIS ROCKS:

Nom when you wanna nom.

New gear, every week. Not keen on what’s coming out this week? That’s fine, because there’s more next week.

 

You ask, we deliver.

You guys want something? More hosiery? Toasties? Cool, we have four releases every month – that’s four chances for us to squeeze something else in.

 

You’re gonna be BFFs with your postie.

Smaller, weekly releases = faster shipping. Our warehouse ninjas will have fewer orders to deal with all at once and can get your gear out quicker.

One more thing - what would a blog post be without a little sneak peek?

UM NEED.

 So: Friday, Pinterest. Tuesday, new gear. Wednesday, 24HR pre-sale ends. Then we’re back to Friday with more sneak peeks on Pinterest. How easy is that!*

- AC

*Really, really, really easy. 

You have questions, I have answers. It's like we were made for each other.

Hi guys

Me again (yay!), with a few little clarifications regarding my post a couple of days ago.

My announcement last week was met with quite a bit of talk - which is a good thing. Of course there were lots of questions, and perhaps a few misunderstandings.

So let the clarifications begin!

 

1. "If you put products out there every week, how are people meant to keep up!?" 

I think it's important to remember that we are actually not planning on doing more products, rather we're going to be making the same number of products and putting them out to the market in smaller, easier to digest portions. To keep with the digestion metaphor, instead of having one massive nine course meal every month - we're going to be having one delicious meal a week.

It's really about taking something that is currently overwhelming, and making it less overwhelming (for us as a business as well as for you guys).

I personally think that it is much easier to keep up with 12 products a week than 50 products a month.

To give you another example - I shop at supermarkets regularly. They put new stuff out all the time. How often they do is really of no concern for me because whenever I shop there I just choose what I want, and don't buy what I don't want. So, for example, if they bring out a new cereal, which is, say, 80% sugar, I can be like "Awesome! I'll get that! I wonder what the other 20% is made of...." And the next morning I'm enjoying a healthy start to my day.

But what happens if next week they bring out a cereal which is 90% sugar? Obviously I need to have that one instead. What to do? I could buy the new one as well, or I could just just coast along with what I have. It's my choice as a consumer.

I don't really care how many other cereals they introduce that week, just as long as I'm getting smacked in the face with enough glucose to kill a racehorse at 7:00am every morning.

Savvy?

Same with us, we'll just keep putting out cool stuff. If you love it and can afford it, great, it's yours. Buy the stuff you love, pass on the stuff you don't.

 

2. "Haven't girls been asking for less releases, not more?"

Well, actually, no.

Think about it, what do you think drives all our new products - my own personal desire to create a massively bloated inventory, or girls who love our clothes constantly asking for new stuff?

If you answered B, you get lots of points.

Sometimes girls will even say to me "jL, you are doing too many pieces, slow down" And before I have time to answer they're like "Oh and by the way, BURNED VELVET ALL THE THINGS I NEED IT ON MAH BODEH!!!!"

Or similarly they will say "I want less licensed releases, I'm over it. BUT OMG I AM SO READY FOR DAT POKEMON/SAILOR MOON/STUDIO GHIBLI/SHERLOCK/FIREFLY/ STUFF RIGHT NOW, LIKE, RIGHT NOW!!!"**

You see my predicament.

At the end of the day, we need to assess how much demand there is for what we are doing, and meet that demand as best we can. Not more, and not less. We will do our best to try to figure out exactly what that magical number is, and your patience while we figure it out is appreciated!

 

3. "So I guess I'm going to be missing out on lots of items now."

Well, I hope not! We went to a lot of effort to make these clothes, and we want you to buy them!

This is a common misunderstanding. To clarify - we are not going to be making smaller numbers, we're just not going to be allowing stuff to hang around on the website for a long time. The pieces will come, all the girls who want them will get them, and then we will move on to the next thing. It's not about making everything super ninja limited, it's about us not having a warehouse (and a website) full of stuff that people don't really want to buy any more!

Your chances of getting something from a BM release will be the result of two things:

• How many pieces we actually make
• How many people want it

Believe me, we are going to do our best to make those numbers match!

Also, the introduction of the 24 hour safe zone means that you will probably have more chance of snagging the things you love. :)

 

4. "This sounds like an attempt to create panic buying."

Not at all. I have said many times before, and I will say it again:

If you miss out on a certain piece of clothing that you really wanted, don't panic, there will be more new arrivals next week where you can get something else that you will (hopefully) love just as much, and there is always the possibility of doing another run of that piece at a later date if there is enough interest.

So please, don't panic. And don't buy something because you are panicking! If you buy a Black Milk piece, buy it because you love it. We have a a 24 hour safe zone where we guarantee you will be able to get the printed pieces that you want.

Guys, I make clothes for people to wear. Believe it or not, I really don't get a kick out of seeing less people wearing Black Milk! For me the key word is enough. I want to make enough clothes. Not too many, not too few. When we make too much, these poor pieces spend their entire lifespan in a box instead of on the legs of on a hot little boss. When we make too little, we miss out on sales and get sad sharkies. Neither works for us. 

That's why we want to do a small number of products each week, that way we can closely monitor the numbers to make sure we are making enough. Of course, there will be a time of tweaking to try and get it right, and there will be times when we will absolutely get it wrong. However, we are just going to keep working hard at figuring out how much demand we have, and striving to meet it.

Again, your patience is appreciated. :)

 

5. "This is just playing into the hands of people who try to profiteer from Sharkies on eBay."

I'm sure there will be many people who will try to manipulate this system in the hope of profiteering. Sad but true. 

However, the great news is that because there is new stuff coming out all the time, there is a good chance that sharkies will have already moved on to the next cool thing and will be spared the extortionate prices that some of these people expect.

At the end of the day, I don't want to punish good-hearted sharkies who do genuinely buy special limited edition pieces in order to prevent a few bad eggs from profiteering.

 

 6. "This scares me!"

Don't be scared, it's going to be fun!

I think the most encouraging thing about this system is how it will enable sharkies to have more involvement with what we are doing. And sharkies love to be involved. :) We are going to be able to be far more responsive to what our customers are loving (or not loving!), and respond much quicker to fun new ideas.

 

 7. Housekeeping

• Weekly drops will start on 5 May :) Which means you get your first sneak peeks on 1 May. 
• The returns process stays exactly the same, you'll still have 30 days to return your product if you're not happy. 
• We're not trying to make you sad by making so many things limited for the sale, we've just got so much stock to clear that we're only keeping around our best sellers. 

 

 =========================

 

 At the end of the day, all I want is a simple, predictable system that works for all of us - so we can get back to having fun with tight shiny clothes.

So... you ready?

:)

jL x 

** This does not mean we're doing all these deals. Soz.