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From the Framiore womenswear brand and products for the military to a textile laboratory
A conversation with Natalia Naida, CEO of Framiore and the Re:TextileGroup textile laboratory.
Photo: framiore.com ©.
Natalia, could you tell us how you started in business?
About fifteen years ago, my first project was born - the SHUFLIA leather goods workshop. Back then, when it was not mainstream, I tried to create an open space where a customer could come and see a craftsman creating a piece for him or her. Then and now, I thought it was very important, because in the modern world of online orders, you don't understand who, where and how it was made. I believe that this way you lose the texture and taste of things, and this leads to rapid consumption and a lot of overproduction. Then it is not sold and burned. And when a person sees the craftsman who made the item for them, then a special connection arises. When you see a thing being created for you, you You can't throw it away lightly anymore.
After that, there were several more projects, such as the Bukvica silk-screen printing workshop and Dribnota, an after-school education for children and an architecture school. Now it has turned into a school of graphic design and interior design.
In 2018, I started working on the Framiore brand, and in 2019, we officially registered the company. Today, this project takes up most of my time. Just like at SHUFLIA, we are trying to build a «transparent production». We have a huge window through which anyone can see the manufacturing process. For the most part, in Ukraine, everything is hidden behind seven locks, although I don't understand what people are hiding there. We often give tours of our production facilities and have guests come to visit us.
During this process, did you learn any entrepreneurial or managerial skills?
There was a time when I actively took many courses. Now I am invited to be a mentor, a speaker in various programmes and forums where I share my experience with others. Today, I draw important, necessary things from life. When you are thirty-nine, you understand what fills you and what empties you. I believe that the most important thing for an entrepreneur is not the ability to use an Excel spreadsheet, but to give to extinguish the fire that is inside you. The most difficult battles are in your head, and the rest are tools that are now very accessible.
I like the fact that I have a desire to wake up in the morning: I know what I'm doing, I know why I'm doing it. I have never had an existential crisis about the meaning of life. People come who become friends, people from whom you learn, who learn something from you. If you are open to knowledge, to wisdom, to just opening a fiction book, then it's great. For example, I mostly read fiction. Books like The Five Laws of Success should be burned (smiles).
Could you tell us about the origins of the Framiore brand and its mission?
I once travelled around Asia with a small backpack. That's when I realised that the things that The noises around us mostly do not make us happy, but rather create noise that does not allow us to hear ourselves. At that moment, I wanted an outfit that I could wear to the beach, to a party, or even to a friend's wedding. That's how I came up with the idea to create a brand friend for women, for nature, for those who create it. After the trip, I returned to Ukraine, gathered my team and told them that we were going to create a new export-oriented brand called Framiore.
When creating the brand, we were guided by the principles of lean manufacturing, which does not involve mass production using warehouses. Our concept: we create clothes from high-quality certified recycled materials to order.
Why did you decide to make Framiore export-oriented, was there a bigger market waiting for you abroad?
We didn't need a bigger market, but a market that understood us. Our products have a simple design and it is difficult to sell them through photos. When I was studying at a marketing institute in Tallinn, I learnt that all brands create different collections for each market and that the poorer the country, the bigger the brand logo on the clothes (this is also the case in Ukraine). That is, a woman buys a branded item to demonstrate her status and wealth to society, and it doesn't matter how the item fits her. I understood that our dress would not say that it was expensive. Framiore is more about yourself, about your comfort and harmony with yourself, about dressing for yourself, not for someone else. That's why we decided that we would sell a conventional dress worth €250 in London faster than in Ukraine. Although this is also relative.
Your clients, who are they?
These are adults who dress for themselves, not for anyone else. It is important for them to support brands like Framiore - it is a more conscious gesture than buying from the mass market, where millions of people are involved in production. Our customers want to understand who they bought from and the conditions in which the items were created.
Where did the idea to create products for the military come from?
It all started on 25 February 2022. I called our military administration and asked how I could help. They replied that they needed sleeping bags for the military. The same day we developed the first prototype. Later, we started working with various foundations.
We do not want to become some kind of military brand or store. It works like this: a Polish or London-based Plast orders a certain number of sleeping bags from us, pays for them, and gives us the addresses where to send them. On our website, you could also order and pay for a sleeping bag for a Ukrainian defender. We managed to develop very high-quality modular sleeping bags. All our designs are created with the participation of the military. The sleeping bags have an internal and outer waterproof covers with rubberised locks to keep them dry.
Where are the Framiore brand offices and what is the company doing now?
The company and the Framiore trademark are registered in the UK. I have a partner there. We have recently registered in Belgium.
A few days ago, we had a joint meeting on the further development of the brand. In particular, we are trying to establish military and commercial production streams. We are also preparing a prototype laboratory that will work in two areas. The first is a textile prototype laboratory (physical manufacturing), and the second is the development of functional textiles and textile certification (this area is not yet regulated in Ukraine). Somewhere in this whole maelstrom of complex textiles, we want to continue working on Framiore, because I understand that it is important for our customers first and foremost
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