The byMe brand: “Ukraine needs a business that will change people’s minds”
27 February 2024 15:04
SPECIAL PRO
for 8 years in a row, they have been making people fall in love with Ukrainian. Their collections tell about Ukrainian customs, traditions, cultural and artistic heritage, and more. Through their clothes, they manage to encourage Ukrainians to get to know themselves better, to realise their identity and uniqueness.
Is it possible to build both business and relationships at the same time, how to create a business that has become a mission in life, and why one should not be afraid to create new meanings through entrepreneurial activity as part of the special project “War & Fashion: The Heartbeat of Ukrainian Fashion” in an exclusive interview with Kommersant Ukrainian 
byMe founders Dmitry and Alina Serdyuk.
It so happens that Ukrainian business often breaks many common stereotypes. And one of the most common in business, for example, is: “don’t do business with relatives”. And you, Alina and Dima, are husband and wife. What rules help you personally break this stereotype?
Alina: In fact, when Dmytro and I started byMe almost 8 years ago, the reason was that we wanted to spend more time together. At the time, we were working at different companies and thought how cool it would be to spend all our working hours, from 9 to 18, together, instead of in different places. In fact, this was the first impetus to start a joint business. If I were to talk about secrets or rules, I would rather call it the values we share. And the most important thing is mutual respect and sincere love for each other.
We have not signed any contracts. The most important values are mutual respect and sincere love
Dmytro: But our example is individual. Because we know couples among our friends who also started a joint business, but they ended up in different ways: some of them got divorced, and some closed their businesses because they couldn’t find a balance between their personal relationships and their common business. We were lucky because we are on the same page and wanted to be together 24/7. We have no contracts between us, as many people advise. We are old-timers, we trust each other. This is the basis of our joint business and our relationship.
The war in Ukraine and sales of designer clothes. For some people, this still sounds like a fantasy, but not for Ukrainians. How has the brand’s communication with your customers changed over these two years of full-scale invasion?
Dmitry: I would like to thank each and every one of our customers for their support and help in the development of byMe. Nothing would have happened without you. As for communication, I see that we have united conscious Ukrainians who share our approach, which is that we can change our country ourselves. The brand’s customers are constantly involved in all our initiatives, charity initiatives aimed at helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I think this is because they have the same views and values as Alina and I. We are on the same page, we feel the same way about what Ukraine needs, and together we strive to make people fall in love with Ukrainian and help the Armed Forces and people in such difficult times.
Your byMe brand lives and develops under the slogan “falling in love with Ukrainian”. In your case, is this a marketing strategy or is it a mission you have chosen?
Alina: byMe has been falling in love with Ukrainian long before the full-scale invasion, and so the answer is that it is the mission of the brand and our mission with Dmytro. This is what we feel inside.
We are Ukrainians and we are passionately in love with our country, its values, traditions and customs. We want to discover them, explore them on our own and encourage people to do the same. We are fighting the problem of the inferiority of Ukrainians, so “falling in love with Ukrainian” is not just a mission, but the meaning of our life with Dmytro.
We don’t have to show our clothes to all Ukrainians. Only those who are on the same page with us.
byMe is probably the only one in Ukraine who has studied and implemented the motifs of Kosiv ceramics in such detail in their collections. Do these ideas of delving into the traditions, in this case of the Ukrainian Hutsul region, narrow the brand’s target audience or expand it?
Dmytro: This is a very interesting question. Our business strategy says that we don’t have to show our clothes to all Ukrainians. Only those who are on the same page with us. And this is a category of conscious people who want to learn about their past and preserve it for the future, for their descendants. So, on the one hand, we are narrowing down and, on the other hand, expanding the segment that we are targeting with our brand, working for those Ukrainians who want to share our mission.
Alina: But if you look at the geography of sales of this collection and any other collection that might seem to narrow the audience, in fact, we have clients from all over Ukraine and even from abroad. Therefore, the theme that reveals Ukrainian traditions, including those of a particular region, does not narrow our customer base in any way. And most importantly, it gives people a reason to think about what those traditions were What is so special about this Kosiv ceramics? What did it even look like? And, my God, it is listed in the UNESCO intangible heritage, which means it is recognised as important by the world.
Dmytro: As another example, I can give you our new collection dedicated to the Berezil Theatre and Oles Kurbas. I think a lot of people don’t know who Kurbas was, and I didn’t know much about him until we started researching him while preparing the collection. But now I’ve learned a lot of important things about how they worked, what kind of performances they staged… Thanks to the feedback from our customers, we see that they are also becoming interested, buying books and going to performances. This is how we broadcast our mission. It’s like spreading a ‘good virus’. Because, as Alina says, clothes are a tool. With its help, we convey to people what we want to convey.
How important is it today for clothes to be more than just clothes? Do you feel a demand from customers that things should be full of additional meanings or even be an element of identification?
Alina: I like this question. This will be a certain message to other brands, to those who are already using Ukrainian identity in their collections or are going to.
First, research, and then saturation with meanings. This is our rule.
Firstly, it encourages people to choose this particular item because it is no longer just clothes, but a certain symbol. And you may want to keep it and then pass it on to your children. Some customers admit that our dresses have become a significant, valuable element for them, which they want to put in a piggy bank and pass on to their daughter. In order to create our collections with meanings, Dmytro and I and our team conduct very in-depth research on each topic. For example, Kosiv ceramics, whose designs we use on our clothes. To learn everything about it and its history, we went on an expedition to Kosiv for three weeks. We visited the institute where Kosiv craftsmen study, visited museums, talked to scientists, and consulted with a doctoral candidate who researched Kosiv ceramics. We also visited contemporary craftsmen and visited the local market to see and compare what old and modern Kosovo ceramics look like.
In other words, we did a full-fledged research and even made bowls of Kosiv ceramics together to delve into the process. It’s cool to fill clothes with traditional elements. But our primary mission is to provide only reliable information in each collection. That’s why research comes first, and then saturation with meaning. This is our rule.
This March, the byMe brand is 8 years old. What key stages in the development of your “fashion” business would you note? How did this affect your current success?
Alina: A long time ago, when Dmitriy and I decided that our mission would be to fall in love with Ukrainian fashion, that was the first turning point. We started by creating capsules dedicated to plants from the Red Data Book of Ukraine and the country’s landmarks, such as Hoverla and the Tendriv Lighthouse. And after that, we realised that this is our mission – to make people fall in love with Ukrainian. That is, first we did it, and then we approved and announced it. As soon as we approved it with words, wrote down this strategy and mission in our heads – what we bring to the world is important – it became a turning point within us and for byMe.
Since Kommersant Ukrainian is a business publication, in particular, we offer you a short blitz where you choose one of two answers based on your own business experience:
If advertising, then:
– on social media?
– on the boards of the main streets?
Dmytro: On social media – more people will see it.
Collaborations:
– with recognisable characters;
– with a social mission?
Dmytro: With a social mission!
If sales are falling, the problem is most likely in
– marketing and advertising strategies;
– high prices?
Dmitry: If the marketing, advertising and business strategies are not properly developed, and the prices are too high, then the problem may be in any of the above. And in a number of other indicators.
And the last thing is honest advice from the byMe brand: is it worth starting or developing a business in the fashion industry in Ukraine today and why?
Dmytro: Any business that can make Ukraine much better, that can influence people, change their minds, implement cool ideas and an incredibly high-quality product should be developed. So if you want to start a business, do it, don’t wait! But do it conscientiously, not to make a lot of money, but to leave your mark on the history of Ukraine and become a company that will be written about in books and films.
Lilia Pril
Read also: “War & Fashion: the heartbeat of Ukrainian fashion”. Special project by Kommersant Ukrainian
