We Are Dark has been created to open up conversation and break the stigma surrounding mental health. With symbols down the spine and riddles to solve to decipher the words they say, it gives the wearer a safe space to express themselves with a likeminded tribe and shielded from the eyes of the general public.
Throughout life, I've suffered depression and anxiety through feeling isolated constantly searching for where I belong. Emigrating from England across the world to Australia in hopes of sunshine bringing a better headspace it quickly became apparent that wasn't the issue. I set off to backpack South America and Asia, as a self discovery trip to hopefully find where I belong. Whilst in Cambodia for 3 months I came up with the concept of a t-shirt that said 'Dark' on it. It wasn't the intention to create a brand, but more-so to express how I was feeling in life and in that moment. Returning to Australia I had a couple of shirts made and decided to head across America en route to England to visit family. I landed in LA and met Daniel through a mutual friend, we instantly hit it off and quickly became friends seeing each other ever day. He saw my t-shirt saying 'Dark' and asked what it was. I explained my story and how I always felt like an outsider, to which he opened up about his struggles through life too and how he was still dealing with his mental health issues. I delayed my trip to England to spend more time in LA. Over the next few months we continued to talk about our mental health and why the shirt 'Dark' exists. We realized how it helped us to be able to open up to each other and we thought it would be awesome if we could give other people the opportunity to have the same conversation. Daniel suggested we add the 'We Are' before 'Dark' to create a community and a place to belonging, which obviously was great. As the brand began to take on its identity I brought inspiration from language and how sometimes it's easier to write to express yourself before being able to vocalize it, bringing it into clothing was a way that we would have a safe space to allow us a platform to connect with likeminded people who understood the struggles of feeling alone. Over the next year we sourced the highest quality, durable clothing we can offer through testing samples. In December 2020 we launched, putting We Are Dark out there for everyone to see.
More info: wearedark.net
