Shedding Light on Dark Room Collection- Interview with Paul McNulty
As an avid underwear shopper, I’m always excited to see new brands and products as they come out. I’m blessed to live in Dallas, TX where the shops in the gayborhood are plentiful and offer a wide selection of undies, swimsuits, jocks, and fetish gear.
While browsing Instagram, I came across, none other than Dark Room Collection. This thirst trap of a post was modeled by two beefy, bearded guys: Paul McNulty (@djpjm1) and Andres Santana (@thesan_edin). So, would a sophisticated lady like myself fall for this trap?
A second later I was on the website. I was pleasantly surprised by their fresh take on, umm… everything. I found at least five items I absolutely had to have right away. Being a London-based company, it took a bit longer to get here, but in the end, it was definitely worth the wait. I fell in love with the fit, materials, and design immediately. But what I loved most was that Dark Room Collection is owned and operated by the two gorgeous models I saw on the website. Not only are they a couple in business, they’re engaged to be married.
Yes, Paul and Andres, pictured below, are obviously hot AF but also ambitious AF. The two saw an opportunity to enter a market and make their mark and they did just that. Respect, queens.
I got a chance to chat with Mr. Paul and learn how he and his sexy fiancé, Andres, came up with Dark Room Collection. Here’s what he had to say. Enjoy. ;)
Andres- @thesan_edin (left) & Paul- @djpjm1 (right)
Weslo: How did you come up with the idea for Dark Room Collection?
Paul: It all started with a calendar of myself that Andres shot back in 2016 (for 2017) It was done in a Dark Room setting. From there we released prints from the calendar and then a t-shirt from it. As things progressed we kept the Dark Room name and expanded on doing jockstraps, etc.
Weslo: How is Dark Room different than other gay apparel brands?
Paul: We model all our own gear. If we wouldn’t wear it ourselves we won’t sell it to our customers. We are completely hands on with it from photography, design, and even postage and packing- all done by ourselves!
Weslo: What has been the public's response to Dark Room?
Paul: Out of the gate, very positive!
Weslo: So it wasn’t difficult to break into the market?
Paul: We have been very lucky. We kind of fell into doing the brand. We both already had a big social media following and had been working with parties around the world while gogo dancing. So we already had the connections to sponsor the parties and a big target market reach for promotion! We just had to make sure we got the products right!
Weslo: Do you have a favorite product/design that you offer? What is it?
Paul: All of the brand new Violation Collection.
Violation Collection 2020
Weslo: Do you have any other favorite gay apparel brands?
Paul: We always love to browse around BOXER shops when we visit Berlin and Barcelona.
Weslo: Where do you get your inspiration for your designs?
Paul: A lot of the time we will have a look at what fetish gear we own and put our spin on it.
Weslo: You own and operate Dark Brand with your husband, Andres— what is that like?
Paul: Great. We definitely make a good team and have completely different skill sets that compliment each other very well.
Weslo: Has traveling as a dancer helped you spend the word about Dark Room?
Paul: 100% - most of our market is in the U.S. Around 80% of our orders. So it’s been great to get around and meet our customers. Last year I made it around to Dallas, New York, PTown, LA, LongBeach and Minneapolis - we always seem to get a spike in customers once we have visited that city!
Weslo: What do you hope to accomplish with Dark Room and what can we expect to see in the future?
Paul: We would love to still to be around in 10 years and have some of our own shops in some of our favourite cities around the world.
Well, there it is. Enjoy the eye candy that is Paul and Andres in the photos below and follow the link to find your next circuit party gear once the Covid-19 gives us our lives back.
Wesley Smoot