About BMJL

BMJL began in 2017 with a single pair of running shorts that had a zip pocket big enough for a phone. That sounds like a small thing to build a company on. It was the only thing we could not buy at the time, and once we had made it for ourselves, the people we ran with wanted a pair.

We are a small team on the California coast, which shapes what we make more than any plan did. Half the year here is spent in water and the other half is spent within sight of it, and clothes get worn between the two states all day. A suit dries on a walk. Shorts go from a run straight into the sea. Nothing we make gets one job.

That is why the two halves of this range share their fabric. The quick drying blend in a pair of athletic shorts is the same family of blend as the one in a swimsuit, and that is not a coincidence of sourcing. It is the reason a BMJL cover up can go over a wet suit without soaking through to the outside within a minute.

We test in the least scientific way available. Pieces go out to the people who work here, they get worn for a season, and the ones that come back with a complaint get changed. The complaint that has changed the most designs is a simple one: the waistband rolled. High waisted cuts across this range are wide and firm for that reason and no other.

What we publish about a piece comes from what is actually printed on it. Fabric percentages, inseams in inches, whether the pockets zip, whether the pads come out. If a page here does not mention a feature, the honest reading is that we could not confirm it, not that the piece lacks it in some clever way.

Sizes run X-Small to XX-Large across most of the range, and they run to our own measurements rather than to a national standard, because there is no single one to run to. The sizing guide on this site sets out how to measure yourself and which department runs closest to the number on the tape.

Colour is the other thing we get letters about. The same style can exist in a dozen shades and only three of them stay in stock through August, so every page here lists the colours that piece actually comes in rather than the ones it was photographed in. When a shade goes, the page stops naming it.

We do not run a shop of our own. Every piece here is bought through our retail partner, and the buttons open the page for that exact item in that exact colour. Prices move with the season, so we refresh ours on a schedule and print the date of the last refresh in one place rather than promising a figure we cannot hold.

The part of this we are least willing to fudge is what a piece will not do. A shelf bra is not a running bra. A crochet cover up is not sun protection. A tankini is not a surf suit. Saying so costs us a sale now and again, and it is the only way a catalogue like this stays worth reading twice.