Since she was a child, she lived with tailoring and sewing underwear in her family. My mother worked as a production manager at the Triola company in Litoměřice, one of the largest textile factories in what was then Czechoslovakia.
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At the part-time jobs every summer, Terezia helped in the hairdressing salon and at work observed model makers who had trained during the First Republic in the salons of Hana Podolská or Oldřich Rosenbaum. The stories about how their masters sewed for Adina Mandlová and Lída Baarová gave her work a touch of uniqueness, as she says.
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The story of the brand
After 1989, her mother became the director of the Litoměřice factory and in 1991 she privatized the factory together with five other partners. Timo, a well-known Czech brand of underwear and swimwear, was founded.
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After graduating from the University of Economics, Terezie started there as a marketing specialist and later became a creative manager. For seven years she was responsible for the creation of underwear and swimwear collections. A few years later, she managed the brand from the position of CEO and was a co-owner of the company.
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Due to a different view on the company’s direction, she sold her business share in Tim to her sister in 2020 and decided to create a swimwear collection under her own name.
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Only the second month on the market
She sews her swimwear in Italy and is convinced that Lombardy and the surrounding area of Milan are the center of production of the best materials for underwear and swimwear in the world. In Milan alone, there are dozens of fashion schools where the highest tailoring is taught.
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When I saw the equipment of the workshops in Italy and the skill of the seamstresses with many years of experience, it was like entering a well-equipped kitchen.
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“Originally, I was looking for capacity in the Czech Republic, but after covid they were either fully occupied, or the workshop was not equipped with the machines to sew them according to my ideas. When I saw the equipment of workshops in Italy and the skill of seamstresses with many years of experience, it was like coming to a well-equipped kitchen,” explains Terezie Trusinová, why she does not sew clothes at home.
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But the beginnings were difficult. The contracted workshop was closed by the covid lockdown for a month in January. In January, suppliers began to inform her that they had to raise prices.
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“All of this could still be managed, but what worries me the most in recent weeks is the fundamental increase in the prices of the transport itself,” Terezie admits.
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From zero to a hundred million
Sewing across borders still makes sense financially. According to her, production is comparable in cost to domestic production.
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“Surprisingly, it’s going well so far, I’ve only had two returns because the customer got the size wrong, so I’m excited so far. But don’t ask me about that, because I always have huge ambitious plans and I had those numbers in my head somewhere else, but if I look at it realistically, the results are very good at the start,” says the owner of the new Czech swimwear brand, admitting that he took the business plan from October last year as his own. With how the Ukrainian crisis and high inflation came.
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“Still, I’m not backing down from him and I want the numbers I was used to, I want to go to the order of one hundred million. I want to follow the path I know. I know a Czech woman, I know what she asks for and what she needs, how to make her the most beautiful,” she says, adding that, in her opinion, a Czech woman is picky. She wants quality, she wants to be different, and the model must also fit her perfectly.
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Male perspective
Her three men, her husband and two sons, who are studying abroad, helped her start the business. On the one hand, despite her doubts, they convinced her that she should go for it, and on top of that, they are now advising her.
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“They really enjoy helping me. One constantly analyzes data and accounting for me, the other markets, advertising campaigns, sales. They are very involved in it and are such a driving force. The husband is like Mrs. Colombo, he works in America in the automobile industry. So he’s a bit invisible, but we call each other every day and he has to listen over and over to see what’s been done, I’m crying into his cell phone and I’m looking for advice on how to improve,” Terezie Trusinová laughs.
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Ecology and brand sustainability
It uses materials from 100% recycled nylon yarn with the ECONYL® certificate and personally checks its suppliers. He visits their factories and wants to make sure with his own eyes that their technological procedures and waste management are environmentally friendly.
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All production waste is recycled and separated in order to reduce its residual amount.
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“So my men are overwhelmed by women’s swimwear, but unfortunately their female friends are also affected, and even their friends are part of the whole machine. But they no longer decide what a bra is, they see it as a project,” she says with a smile.
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The Czech Republic is small. I always say that it is the size of New York, and any fluctuations such as the coronavirus or the war in Ukraine are very noticeable.
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He has expansive plans. “However, because the Czech Republic is small. I always say that it is the size of New York, and any fluctuations such as the coronavirus or the war in Ukraine are very noticeable,” he says, adding that he definitely wants to stay in the country this year.
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“The son in America is translating the site into English, we are starting to build Instagram and other social networks there, he is building a community of influencers there. For example, America, I think, is a potential market for swimwear,” he reveals other plans.
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