How it all began

Hello!

The BOY’D journey starts with two Melbourne boys, Derek and Brendan, who met a couple years ago and our love for fashion, fun, and adventure started a romance and led us down a path to create BOY’D.

Derek is originally from China, and has called Melbourne home for over 17 years, while Brendan hails from New Zealand and moved to Sydney in 2018 before making Melbourne home in 2019.

Together, with our Frenchie, Panda, we’re passionate about bringing luxury, comfort and affordability, with our bold, fun and cheeky approach to queer fashion.

SO, how did we come up with BOY’D?

Not gunna lie, it’s been a long haul – Initially we started by looking into drop-shipping, bringing European trends to Aussie shores – but we quickly found that those euro-brands we’re expensive, and often only lasted one season. Disappointed, we knew we wanted to do something different for queer men in Australia.

Our #swimqueer or #speedosforhomos idea quickly developed, and before we knew it – we were looking at suppliers and manufacturers all over the world. Ordering dozens of samples which promised quality and a good fit, there was nothing we found which could deliver what we were asking for (there were some shockers!), and so we decided to do it ourselves.

Getting it right

The Candy Collection, our first line, took more than 12 months to develop, and our first custom cut turned out to be a lot more 1970’s and a lot less 2024, so it was quickly back to the drawing board.

Four samples later, we finally settled on a cut that makes your booty bounce and your bulge pop – we thought we had it in the bag, and went into pre-production with our manufacturer.

Taking a handful of samples with us for a queer retreat with friends to Bali in October of 2023, we thought our little holiday would ‘fill our cups’ ready to hit the market on our return – oh were we wrong. Our first night in Uluwatu, celebrating with friends poolside, soon turned into more frustration and disappointment, when we woke the next day to see all of our pool–party-tested shenanigans had left us with pilling and scratching and a product we knew would leave a bad taste in your mouth.

2000 metres of fabric had to be trashed.

Working with our manufacturer, we went down the supply chain to our fabric producer – testing and retesting the fabric (dozens of times) to develop a blend that would be super soft, supportive, and durable – eventually landing on a triple-protected polyamide/spandex blend that could tough it out poolside, beachside, or #anyqueer.

Be bold, have fun

We also wanted to create something different, with a modern colour palette and a fun print to fit any #homocasion. So we looked for local collaborators to help us.

The Candy Collection artwork was designed by the incredible, Jana – Jana, had worked with Brendan as an intern at The University of Melbourne, and is an amazing artistic talent, who loved our idea and quickly and easily took our concepts and mood boards, to create our iconic Donut, Ice Cream and Frenchie prints. You should definitely check Jana out, if you need an artist.