Our Story

We spent our youth together; think a shared CD subscription, weekly op-shop trawling, Bursary art portfolio sessions, early morning netball, first time on a plane (BDO 2000, lifetime highlight, lost my ticket before I even boarded the plane). I bought a singer sewing machine from the Trade and Exchange when I was 15 – the first thing I made was matching hoodies – baby blue for Rachel, baby pink for me.

Looking for any excuse to leave home we decided to head down to Dunedin where our older brother and sister were both studying. We started working on small and weird projects together while we were studying –found object earrings, spray painted capped sleeve tees, you name it. To me it always seemed like Rachel’s talent had no limits, and I wanted to share her gifts in any way possible. And that’s kinda how we found our way to starting this brand, out of our flat in Dunedin in 2005.

Heavily influenced by Naomi Klein’s No Logo, the Feminist art movement of the late 80’s, and a drive to spend every waking moment working together, we went for it. After Rachel finished her degree, we relocated back home to Wellington. Got a flat with a big living room, subsisted on canned soup and got to work. The collections that followed, Latchkey children, Cheap Thrills, Smoke and Mirrors, are truly embarrassing to reflect on, but one must start somewhere.

We re-branded as twenty-seven names in 2007 when an American company gained control of international copyright usage of ‘love-lies-bleeding’. We’d moved out of our emo phase by then and were happy to get a chance to pay homage to list of people (27 to be exact) who had tirelessly helped us on our journey to get our brand off the ground. No love was lost.