BLAK - Our Story

Created by director, designer and mother of two Teresa Hodges, BLAK was founded in 2007 with a focus empowering women to feel confident, and in control.

"I started the brand motivated to give customers uncomplicated, beautiful, timeless clothes that they could rely on to take them anywhere and keep in their wardrobe forever as those special pieces you can’t part with. Like that “little black dress” that you always rely on, I imagined each BLAK piece to have that same meaning, something our customers would always reach for as their go to, to make them feel amazing anywhere."

The brand started as a basics range that could be mixed and matched, "to make your wardrobe work better and getting dressed easier."

The brand and collections grew, but the motivation behind the designs remained the same. 

"I want to make dressing easy, and I want to empower women to easily feel amazing without over-complicating it or overshadowing their true self. I always try and create effortless styles, but with special details that make the garment and the woman wearing it stand out from the crowd."

THE DESIGN PROCESS

Everything BLAK is designed here in New Zealand, by Teresa.

The first step when designing a new collection, she says, is choosing the fabrics, prints and textures - something she is hugely inspired by. 

"Once I start getting into those, the ideas start flowing."

The designs she creates are so rooted in timelessness, that popular styles are often recut in new colourways or with the styles slightly reworked for the new season.

She cites her past travels in Italy and France as inspiration, as well as the style of iconic supermodel Kate Moss. 

MANUFACTURING

Boutique production

We work with small boutique manufacturing teams with long standing relationships. With the majority of our manufacturing in Indonesia we have a factory run and created by a close Indonesian friend the brand, who has set up over time to meet our exacting criteria.

"It was important to me to build strong trusting relationships with our team there, to ensure this  relationship will last forever. All of the staff know us and we frequently visited (4 times a year) prior to Covid. I work with our factory manager on a a daily basis.

We personally give the staff extras such as religious holiday bonuses and interest free loans for bigger things in their lives such as building a house. We love that we have this personal relationship with them and they appreciate and are so passionate about making beautiful clothes for our customers."

Closer to home in New Zealand, we've worked with the same machinists since the beginning of BLAK and will continue to support them and their work. 

A portion of our garments are also made in China, where we have worked with the same agent for the last eight years. This factory is a smaller boutique factory with low minimums rather than producing in mass quantities - something we do not do.

We don't follow trends - we make timeless pieces that hold their value, and always in small, exclusive runs. We favour natural fabrics, that can biodegrade at the end of their life.

Fabric offcuts are made into scrunchies, and soon to be masks. Fabric is carefully cut in the most efficient way to ensure minimal wastage.

We are continuously looking at ways to reduce our footprint and improve what we can do to lessen our environmental impact. We know we are just starting, but we're committed to this mission.