Orchard Street Apparel is a love story -- both for the owners, husband-and-wife duo Whitney and Julie Teska -- but also for the creative process involved in bringing a garment to life with inks and artwork.

Growing up playing in bands, Whitney learned to screen print the punk rock way -- self-taught with homemade equipment. He later employed some of those same D.I.Y. values when starting his own business with his then-girlfriend Julie in 2008.

Orchard Street Apparel is named for the street that housed our first basement print shop. It was a pretty little farmhouse somewhat oddly placed in the heart of an industrial area of Milwaukee; it was where our love and our creativity grew. We didn't know very much about business at the time, though we managed to convince the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to give us a chance by taking first place in their business planning competition. Our goal was simple: Provide eco-friendly screenprinting on ethically-produced garments.

Screen-printing has historically been an industry of environmentally harmful plastisol inks containing gender-bending phthalates and harsh solvent chemicals. OSA was committed from the start to breaking that pollution cycle and was ahead of the vast majority of print shops in exclusively using phthalate-free plastisol and environmentally-friendly soy-based biodegradable cleaners.

So, that brings us up to speed. In the last eight years, our little basement shop moved to a slightly bigger basement and, eventually, into its own space outside of our home. We love Milwaukee and believe in the unique spirit its supportive community of local entrepreneurs has helped create. Many of the designs found in our shop reflect this admiration for our Midwestern home on a Great Lake.