About Basically Black

If you've ever spent hours fruitlessly trawling the high street for the perfect pair of black trousers, you'll know that those black basics we all build our wardrobes around can be the hardest to get right. That's where basicallyblack.com comes in. We only sell black clothes, so we're absolutely focused on finding the best, most flattering styles - and with a collection that includes beautifully-cut tailoring, timeless little black dresses, chic black knitwear and relaxed black T-shirts, vests and and jeans, everything you need is just a click away.

I got the idea for basicallyblack.com when I was working in the high-pressure world of advertising sales, for a big woman's magazine publisher. Like most busy working mums, I needed a wardrobe that made it quick and easy to look smart, professional and fashionable, and more and more, I found myself turning to black. With basics like a good black suit, well-cut black trousers and skirts, and chic black knits, I knew that no matter how frenzied the morning rush at home, I always had something flattering, practical and stylish to wear. When I thought about it, I realised that black is the busy woman's secret weapon for more than just workwear: whether it's the classic little black dress for a party, or a timeless black T-shirt and jeans at the weekend, black basics are the things we all pull out of our wardrobes time and time again, and never get tired of wearing.

But finding those perfect black basics isn't always easy; because they're so simple, black clothes need to be well-designed and well-made, in quality fabrics, so they stay looking great season after season. On holiday with a friend I worked with, we'd joked about the fact that even 'off duty', we were wearing black swimsuits, and one of us said how useful it would be if there was a shop that only sold black clothes, where you could find all those perfect black pieces in one place. The more we talked about it, the more we realised that we'd accidentally come up with a business idea that really could work. Women like us were wearing black in every season, and for every kind of occasion, yet good, well-cut black basics were often the most difficult clothes to find in the shops.

When, back at home, I spent a fruitless Saturday running around trying to find a pair of classic, well cut black trousers and a black cardigan for an interview, I knew I had to make our plan a reality but the shop idea needed to progress. Online fashion retailing had really taken off - and it was the perfect way to sell the kind of clothes we were thinking of. Busy women could buy the basics they needed, without even leaving home, and save precious shopping time for the fun bits of their wardrobes - and that's how basicallyblack.com was born.

The entire range has been carefully selected with the lifestyles of our customers in mind, busy women who are time poor, who shop on the internet and love to wear black. After months searching out suppliers who could deliver the kind of beautifully-cut, timeless, essential black clothes we wanted, I put together our first collection: a range of great black basics that'll take our customers from work to weekends, business meetings to evenings out. It's exciting now seeing the collection and the site come together and all the hard work that has gone into it. It'll be on sale from September 2008, at basicallyblack.com.

Janey Marshall