Benjamin BlaK Opens Undies-Making Shop In NW PDX
BOOTY BOUTIQUE: Benjamin BlaK will celebrate the official "Grand Opening" of his self-named boutique, Benjamin BlaK, on February 1st, which also happens to be Benjamin's birthday.
It's not only an auspicious date for Benjamin, but also for Portland.
This is due to the fact, at least to my knowledge, this will be the first boutique/factory of its kind in Portlandia...oops...I mean Portland.
You see, BlaK is perhaps best known as a underwear designer via his popular Pulse Underwear. And his Benjamin BlaK boutique, located at 2323 NW Westover St., will be somewhat of a jock-strap factory.
BlaK makes other intimate and swim apparel for men as well as women, but a lot of guys around this town love to wear his "sock jocks" and his line of "rugby" shorts (see above). Before his grand opening I thought it might be nice to check in this innovative designer. Here is what Benjamin had to say.
Are you an Oregon native?
I'm not an Oregon Native, I am originally from Oklahoma. I moved here in 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing.
How old are you?
I will be turning 38 on the day of our Grand Opening that is on February 1st.
When did you first become a fashion designer?
I stated sewing at the age of 3 and designing professionally at the age of 15. My first professional stage show was in 1991. I did some designing in college and I learned all my garment history while studying costume and wardrobe design over a 7-year span from 1984 to 1991. I have studied under some of the best costumers in the world. I started with Shakespearean plays and have been consumed by the history of why we wore what we wore and when.... I love the study of garment history and how we define ourselves by what we wear.
When did you move into the field of intimate apparel?
I started designing mens underwear in 1999, the first pairs were seen in a fashion show I did at the Broadway Movie Theater here in Portland. Later in the spring of 2001 I got my first big client International Male and continued selling to them until Sept. 11, 2001. During the recession that followed I had to narrow my first line to what was selling the best which was mens underwear, so I re-incorporated and Pulse Underwear Inc. was born.
How would you describe what you are now doing in NW Portland?We have just opened our first retail and production space, which is located on NW 23rd and Burnside next door to Cost Plus World Market, where we will be designing, producing and selling all of our garments. We are extremely proud of our lines and the fact that we produce every piece here locally right in our building. In our store our customers will actually be able to peek inside our beautiful production space to watch the garments being made. And on Saturdays we are opening up the production side of the store for visitors and tours. We want to showcase how local production can be done while still maintaining the quality of the merchandise. We strive to create public awareness that we do in fact make everything here in our facility by hand. One of our goals is to encourage more local manufacturing and production and really bring more business to Portland and boost local economy.
Want to know what happened when he opened a Pop-Up shop next to H&M, or what are his most popular panties? Then click on "read more" below.
How many people will help you in the factory?
We currently have three sewers that work in our production space. We like to avoid the word "factory" because sometimes that word has a negative connotation and can lead people to believe that we are a dirty sweatshop, which is completely not the case. When designing our new space we put the same amount of thought and consideration into the production side as we did to the retail side. We have three very skilled artisans that specialize in garment fabrication and they create each piece by hand and new designs are put on the floor daily. That's the real beauty behind our method, because we produce everything in-house, not only do we have new stuff daily but we are able to have rigid quality control and we take the thoughts and comments that we receive from our customers and apply them directly to our products.
Is the only apparel factory of its kind in the U.S.? World?
No this is not the only factory of its kind in the world. In New York there are several cute boutiques where the ground floor is a beautiful retail shop and the second floor is the factory where they cut and sew for the shop below. However, my concept is a little different. I am striving to re-educate my fellow Americans about my trade which has been sold to the nations with the lowest bid. It would be a national crisis to lose such manufacturing fundamentals like sewing, without it we will be literally naked and cold. I believe strongly that we can remedy our Nation’s problems with one easy step: work smarter not harder.
Do you do custom fit?
Currently we do not do custom fits. We hope in the future to incorporate a denim line into the brand and once we do that we are thinking that we would do some custom fitting of the denim pieces.
What is most popular line or item?
Right now our most popular collection(s) is the Mesh Collection as well as our Bamboo Lines. Over the holiday when we had our pop-up store at Pioneer Place we completely sold out of every Bamboo Piece and the Mesh is the biggest online seller.
What was the response like when you were next to HM in Pioneer Place?
When we set up our Holiday store at Pioneer Place next door to HE&ME, the initial response was shock, oddly enough. We were really surprised at how 'shocking' we were according to peoples reactions; we figured that our displays (which people found the most shocking) were pretty mild compared to other lingerie stores. When looking at stores like Victoria's Secret, they use pictures of real women, albeit beautifully shot images, but close-ups of women in lingerie and these pictures are huge in their store windows. So we figured that our plastic mannequins with boxer-briefs on wouldn't be as big of a sensation as it turned out to be. After the initial shock and awe, people were very receptive to our concept (local design and manufacturing) and they were very thankful that we offered quality, designer undergarments for men. In fact we got a lot of people saying that they've been waiting for something like this to come along and are very excited that we're here to stay.
What are the future plans of Benjamin Blak?
The future plans for Benjamin Blak are limitless. We are getting ready to debut our very first womens collection, and thus far the reaction to what we've already made has been really positive. We want to become an attraction for Portland visitors, to come and see our production facility and shop the only Benjamin BlaK store. We definitely have some amazing Fashion Events in store for Portland that we're really excited about-- but we can't reveal too much yet! We want to become a well-known fashion house with Portland as our home and we will continue to do what we have always been doing which is setting the trend and the bar for Mens Underwear.
Would you ever go on Project Runway or The Fashion Show?
Yes, I have thought about it in the past when we were first getting started. However, one thing that a lot of people don't realize about those shows is that when you sign up to be a contestant you sign over the majority of your rights as the designer. And if you were to win and make money off of those designs the network would therefore receive a percentage of what you make. At this point in time, I think that I can turn this into an amazing fashion house all on my own.
Also when is the official opening and is the opening party open to the public?
The grand opening is Tuesday, February 1st. The party will celebrate not only the Grand Opening but my birthday as well and will be from 4pm-7pm. It is open to the public with a complimentary champagne toast to the first 50 guests. We will be having an amazing sale on some of our classic pieces as well as having live models modeling some of our new collection.
Benjamin BlaK is located at 2323 NW Westover St., Portland, Oregon.
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Last Updated (Thursday, 27 January 2011 13:58)
