Lithuanian contemporary womenswear brand, Dear Freedom, aims to create luxurious, versatile pieces for the high-flying fashion lover. Demanding quality and appreciating originality. Made in Lithuania from the highest quality of materials, each garment is created with comfort in mind. The brand offers full freedom of movement as well as figure-flattering design.
MilliOnAir spoke to Rasa Barkauskiene and Kristina Bausiene, the duo behind the label, to talk about their business and their passion for fashion.
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Please tell us how you came up with the beautiful fashion brand Dear Freedom ?
The idea of Dear Freedom was born under the simple wish of doing something that would feel great for the heart and the soul. Kristina was in the way of searching herself in art and fashion illustration. I was searching for something new and challenging with focus on fashion. One evening we met for a girls dinner and started talking about our desires for future. One of our friends has loudly expressed her admiration to the gift, that was handcrafted by Kristina, it was a fashion illustration drawing. At this moment the idea was born to transfer the paintings of Kristina on clothes by digital means. After that a long process of brainstorming, mind mapping, strategic thinking and creative painting has followed while Dear Freedom appeared visible for everyone.
We love the name, where did it come from?
Thank you! We love “Dear Freedom” name as well We knew from the very beginning that our brand will have a unique name. We were thinking about it for quite a long time and came up with the first part “Dear” as the letter title to someone you love. But we couldn’t come up with the second part of the name. Then one day we had a small day dream, as a team building exercise in the very beginning of our activity. We had to imagine a nice summer day, with the sun shining brightly, us in the beach. The beach is empty but it has two sunbeds to lie down, to feel the heat of the sun. We are wearing white t-shirt and there is something written on these t-shirt’s back. What it is – the question was? One of us imagined that it was written “Love”, the other one - “Freedom”. The same minute we have realized that the name of our brand will be “Dear Freedom”.
Were you friends from school? Please tell us your friendship journey and how it turned to business?
We got to know each other 8 years before establishment of the brand. We’ve met in another working environment and have been colleagues working in a completely different industry than fashion - finance. We became close friends sharing same interests, lifestyle. At that time Kristina (our designer) was a person wearing someone else’s shoes – working in finance, but spening her free time painting, drawing fashion illustration, and studying fashion design. Thus, organically she became a creative hand of Dear Freedom. While I haven’t gone so far, my main role is development of the brand from the business perspective, I’m a strategic head of Dear Freedom. Actually, this business related background helps us a lot, cause being a successful fashion brand is a lot about bringing aspiration to reality.
''The idea of Dear Freedom was born under the simple wish of doing something that would feel great for the heart and the soul.''
What has been your proudest moment?
We try to enjoy every little moment – either it's a new collection being showed, entering a new store or happy clients wearing our clothes. We are proud we have created “Dear Freedom” and we are proud when our pieces make women happy.