About
Midnight All Year Story
Hello, I’m Amy Johnson, the creator of Midnight All year.
All my life I've loved black, cotton clothes. Shirts mainly, but also any unique, wearable, practical, high quality, black, cotton garments. From foraging the boutiques of yore, to scanning the internet in reclusive parenting years, I’ve had hand-washed black clothes drying around my living spaces like mobiles since I can remember. Now I have a washing machine and dryer, but I still hang-dry almost everything. I rue the day my favorite black shirt is in the wash, especially if I only have one or two I love, which is usually the case.
I’ve always wanted a closet full of high-end T-shirts Morticia Addams could throw on with jeans. I need to move and sweat and create and be a mother in my clothes, bump into messy surfaces and spill coffee on myself and still look fabulous. I never dry clean anything, and I love casual items that look dramatic. These traits aren’t easy to find all in one garment.
So now with the help of my children, a full-time day job to sustain us, a small personal credit line for our clothing line, and some of my favorite craftspeople in the business, I’m designing a black, cotton, casually dramatic, faintly goth capsule one very small batch at a time.
You deserve to be draped in the best fabric, and you deserve to feel good in your clothes. I want Midnight All Year to be a shop where you can find your favorite black pieces every season of every year.
Where does my passion for well-designed, easy to wear clothing come from? My first fashion jobs were in Los Angeles in the early 90’s painting textile designs and doing freelance screen art for clothing brands while waiting tables and attending Otis College of Art and Design.
I dropped out of school after one semester due to cost. Through a coworker in a bar married to a designer, I began full-time print painting for a clothing company which led to learning garment design and production.
Since childhood I was driven to move to New York City, and by the mid 90s I finally saved enough money (after several years to save up one month’s rent and deposit…you know the drill) to make the jump to NYC.
In New York I designed for various fabric and clothing companies. One day a Bushwick screen printer and friend offered to front the cost of bulk quantities of blank T-shirts for my own screen designs in exchange for the printing plus profit on a few orders for a big store. With that boost I started my own company designing and manufacturing for stores under their labels using pattern rooms and factories all over NYC. Those years were tough adventures full of some of my very favorite people, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. I miss NYC, and I’m grateful whenever I spend time there.
I left the city for parenthood in central Pennsylvania with a touring musician who left us soon after for California. My original plan was to use the time and space to pursue painting, my first true love set aside while I worked in fashion. The wide-open PA landscapes and separate rooms of a big old house (I love you NYC but your apartments are small) are inspiring, but raising three kids alone is all-consuming. So I put painting aside again for when I can give it more focus.
PA has given me a beautiful place to breathe during hectic years and raise my children. Now I seek art in light and scenery, usually when I exercise outdoors. I also love to pull the car off the road to take photos to my kids’ chronic chagrin. My three teens are my joy, but I’ve also missed designing clothes. So now I’ve come full circle with the launch of my brand, Midnight All Year.
Until we can grow and bring production to our home town of Milton, PA, we’re proudly manufacturing with ethical companies across the USA. Our fabric is spun to order in Los Angeles, and our garments are sewn in NYC. For details about the good people your purchase supports, please see our Supply Chain page.
Thank you very much for supporting our brand. We appreciate you, and we want you to feel beautiful in our clothes!
~A m y
