Black Milk Clothing.

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"So who am I? I'm just the guy with the coolest job in the world."

-James Lillis.

Black Milk Clothing is an online fashion label that manufactures awesome printed leggings, swimsuits, tops and skirts, all the way back in their little design studio in Brisbane, Australia. In just a few years, the label got extremely popular and earned recognition all over the world. It’s original, alternative, colorful and unique. The label also cooperates with a big name in the shoe-fashion, Jeffrey Campbell, and designed some amazing pairs of shoes.

But where did the idea of creating this kind of clothes come from? Who’s the mastermind behind all of this? There’s only one answer to that: James Lillis.

All started with a secondhand sewing machine and a boy who had only 6 bucks left in his pocket. One day, Lillis wanted to make himself a shirt, and with no money left he walked into a fabric shop and bought himself the cheapest fabric he could find; nylon lining. As Lillis put it himself: “It was these fateful decisions that lead me down the path to Black Milk. Because nylon lining doesn't look particularly attractive, it meant I had to make it fitted. I made myself a tight shirt. It was tragic. The stitching was wrong, the pieces were cut weird, and the neck was a nothing more than a hole. And I loved it. I wore it constantly.”

From there on, Lillis started to focus on doing odd small jobs to earn money, but at the same time he was already planning and plotting in the back of his mind. Each time when he earned some, he went to a store and bought some new fabrics to try out new things. He made a pair of leggings out of tribal African printed fabrics and tried it out on a friend of his friend. He cut and sewed them again and again until they fit, and in the end, the girl was so satisfied that she asked Lillis if she could buy them. This was a major change in Lillis’ plans and from then on, he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to design more of these clothes, because if there was one girl who was prepared to buy one pair of his leggings, there were probably even more girls who wanted to do the same.

As Lillis only had his sewing machine (which he couldn’t even use properly yet), he had no other option than to figure out how to create something in the best possible way. He attended sewing lessons and slowly his collection of self-made clothes was becoming bigger and bigger. The next step was something more difficult: go out and sell the stuff! Most of the stores turned him down, and when he finally found one who wanted to give him the chance to try and sell his stuff, this turned out into a disaster. So Lillis decided to go to markets and try to sell his creations there, but also there he and his creations weren’t very loved.

But then the unexpected happened. More and more people found Lillis’ creation through his blog, and it very soon got to the point where Lillis’ clothes were selling rather well at his little online shop. This is when he decided that Black Milk clothing would be exclusively an online fashion label, and it seems he made the right decision. His clothes are selling very well and Black Milk clothing became a lot bigger than he expected.

By now Lillis has an entire team which helps him to continue to make his dream come true, and an entire community of devoted Black Milk fans.

DO.