Hip Leggings & Sci-Fi Swimsuits From Black Milk.

above: The Helvetica leggings are just one of the many cool pieces of printed stretchy clothes from Black Milk.

Black Milk, a line of trendy fashions by James Lillis has been getting a lot of attention lately thanks to a post on Boing Boing which featured the fabulous Artoo and Threepio swimsuits and has resulted in a four week wait for both of the suits shown below.



But there's a lot more fabulous items in the collection- not just Star Wars-related clothes. While there's other fab space imagery, there's also some wicked rock n' roll, skulls, abstract patterns, union jacks, dollar bills, bones and other hip iconography printed on LYCRA in the form of swimsuits, leggings, shorts, catsuits, jackets and more.

Some of my fave swimsuits:
C Threepio Swimsuit:

Artoo Swimsuit (R2-D2):

Dark Side Swimsuit (Love the combination of the Pink Floyd album cover with Darth):

Galaxy Swimsuit:

Black Ribs Swimsuit:

Resurrection Swimsuit:

Sesame Street Pulp Fiction Swimsuit:

The Great Wave swimsuit (clearly inspired by Hiroshige) and Jaws swimsuit:

Black Skull and White Skull swimsuits:



Some of my fave leggings:

Helvetica Leggings:

Galaxy leggings (shown in black, also available in red):

Dreaming Desire leggings:

Leg Bones leggings:

Newsprint leggings:

Colored Comics leggings:

Black and White comics leggings:

Little Skulls leggings:

Dollar leggings:


Not all of the above suits and leggings are still in production, please check their online store for availability.





In James' own words:
At the beginning of 2009 I walked into a little sewing shop and bought two shiny new sewing machines. It was a slightly unusual sight - a shop full of older women making patchwork quilts for their grandkids... and me.

I didn't mind. It seemed very punk at the time.

My idea was fairly simple - I would teach myself to sew, buy some beautiful stretch fabrics, and make insane leggings. Then I would find girls who would get into them. Girls who wanted leggings that could pack a little more punch than the ones on offer at your average department store.

I made the leggings, found the girls, and so was born Black Milk.

Things were slow initially, but the girls who bought the leggings were always really positive, which was super-encouraging for me in the early days. The turning point came when I decided that I was going to figure out a way to wrap chains around a pair of leggings. It took me a week of drawing, sketching, scheming and failing before I finally figured out how to do it. I called them Cages, and they were a minor cult hit. From that time on, so many girls were ordering Black Milk gear that it became a full time job.

We've come a long way since those early days sewing leggings at midnight on the kitchen table. We've sold thousands of pairs of leggings all over the world. We've been featured in numerous magazines, newspapers and blogs from the local paper to Vogue. Best of all, Black Milk has now got score a reputation as one of the most exciting designer leggings labels in the world.

But a lot is still the same. I still stay up to midnight sewing. I still personally design each piece. I still get a buzz every time a girl emails me a picture and tells me how many people commented when she wore out her Black Milk leggings.

Yeah, it's still fun.

xx
james Lillis


Shop Black Milk here.

Move Over Silly Bands, Here's Some Sexy Bands For Grown-Ups.

If you haven't heard of silly bandz, you've either not come in contact with anyone under the age 20 in the past month or you live under a rock. As a matter of fact, the trend is so large that today The Daily What via joystiq has a post about the upcoming Silly Bandz Nintendo DS game from Zoo Games.



And even the technician at my dermatologist was wearing them last week.


above: children are stacking, trading and collecting Silly Bands like crazy

"Silly Bands" are the term given to shaped rubber bands that people have begun wearing as bracelets. The animal and object shaped colorful rubber bands have become collectible, traded and worn in multiples on the arms of kids and adults alike.



But if you want a little more adult version (or to compete with your children), Kikkerland has designed them in the shape of four different Kama Sutra positions- shown above on the wrist and below.



Made of silicone and sold 24 to a package (six of each design).

Kama Sutra Bands

Where's Manish Arora Going After India's Fashion Week? Disneyland!

Above: Designer Manish Arora & his collection at India's Fashion Week

Okay, not really. Besides, he's already been there from the looks of his latest collection.

Fashion week in New Delhi had some drama (the wardrobe malfunction on a Belgian model during the showing of Rajesh Pratap Singh's collection) and some truly amazing clothes. One of the more unusual...okay, bizarre... collections was that of designer Manish Arora with futuristic warrior headgear on models sporting Disney icons clad in crystal, embellishing dresses, scarves and more.



Manish Arora's 'Ultra Man Meets Lichtenstein' collection at the Delhi fashion week had people talking. Known for his irreverent designs, colorful patterns and unusual runway accoutrements, Arora's most recent collection incorporates Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Pop Art and lots of knee and shoulder pads.



The Disney cartoon characters clad in armor and the work of Japanese artist Keiichi Tanaami were rendered on silk, velvet and brocade dresses inspired by Japanese samurais, gladiators and medieval knights.. and to me, personally, Ultra Man.



Arora's models walked the ramp wearing lion masks and metallic armor shields, shoulder and knee pads, most embellished with Swarovski crystals.





"For me, fashion is glamorous and happy and shiny - that's why I show all this," the designer told reporters after the show.



"My clothes always have a sense of humor and Walt Disney provided that for me."



The majority of the collection lacked the Disney characters, but certainly didn't lack stopping power. Take a look at some of the collection:












And of course, Ultra Man:


Around 80 designers showcased autumn and winter collections on the runway or in stalls at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week.

Designer duo Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna took inspiration from city life for their 'Lost in the Urban Maze' collection - the grid lines of the city mimicked in sleek suits and dresses in various shades of brown and blue.

Creative designs were not the only thing that made news at the fashion week on Friday. The shoulder drape of a Belgian model slipped sideways during designer Rajesh Pratap Singh's show, exposing her breast for a second. Photographers clicked away but most in the audience remained oblivious to the slip-up.



Clothes coming undone on the ramp are nothing new to the fashion world, but in India it sent newspaper editors and TV producers into a feeding frenzy. Some TV channels repeatedly broadcast the footage, blurring out the model's breast, while newspapers published reports with photographs of the model.

See Manish Arora's site here.