My Creative Cup of Tea

August 31, 2022

#MCCOTVoices {1}

Yulia Lysak

Kyiv

Ukraine

WORK WAR BALANCE

Hello, I’m Yulia Lysak.

I am the co-owner and creative director of the Ukrainian resort wear brand KASYL.

Our production department and office are based in Kyiv.

Therefore, the war has got us here.

Perhaps I will never forget the moment when the phone call woke me up at 5 a.m. informing me about the start of it.

Then followed numerous sirens, explosions, nights in a bomb shelter.

I could not believe what was happening, that it was real.

It became more dangerous to stay in the city every day.

Therefore, for the safety of our close ones and ourselves our team had to leave the city and then the country.

Production was suspended. Everything was suspended.

When I was leaving Kyiv, I took a small suitcase with me. When I was packing it, I thought that I might never return to my apartment. That is why I took only those things that I loved the most, that were most valuable to me. Among them were samples of swimwear of our brand.

We did not understand what would happen next. Nobody understood.

From the first days, our team started volunteering, non-stop assistance everyone with everything we had. We did everything we could do and even more.

Later, we launched a project to support those, who protected our home. On our website, you could buy donations for different amounts (and still can). We sent 50% of the collected funds to the 128th Kyiv's battalion, as they needed to purchase ammunition.

We felt a strong need to get back to what we did best. To what inspired us and gave us the strength to move on. After all, we all need strength.

Therefore, we resumed our production in Kyiv and set up all processes. We also transported a range of items to Paris. Now we deliver our orders across Europe.

We want to support our country, our people and introduce the world to our products, to products made in UA.