Meet the Makers — The Core of Oy

Siblings Zelia and Dario form the core of Oy. Read about their roots and a few answers to questions they are often asked!

“Out of pure joy.” That is the answer you get when you ask Zelia Zadra what inspired her to start Oy. Although becoming an entrepreneur was never her goal, she began creating her first surf bikinis in 2012. One year later, the online shop was launched. Over the years, Zelia has been guided by her passion for surfing. Together with her brother Dario, she discovered the happiness and beauty of surfing almost 20 years ago during a family holiday. To this day, surfing is something that connects the two of them and has influenced their path in life in many ways.

Dario was involved in the company from the very beginning, especially in setting up the website. After already spending a lot of time helping out here and there, he decided it only made sense to join the company full-time. Today, the siblings form the core of Oy. Zelia runs the company from Zurich, handles communications and marketing, creates the designs, and oversees production in Portugal. Dario, who studied product design and lives in Berlin, has since been responsible for the online shop and sales in Europe.

Zelia, what is your favourite bikini from Oy?

Buri, Mako, and Orfe when I want maximum sun protection. And I always need to have a dry bikini with me. My favourites are Ora and Oroshi.

Dario, what can’t you live without in your private life?

Spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti. I need at least one double portion of spaghetti per week, carbo-loading times three. Fun fact: for the entrance exam for my design studies, I designed a spaghetti machine.

What is it like working together as a sibling team?

Basically, it is like any other team: each member brings their skills and strengths, making the team complete. At the same time, each member also has their own preferences and ideas, for example when it comes to developing a new product or designing a new campaign. That can sometimes lead to longer discussions. But the best thing about being a sibling team is that you trust each other unconditionally. That gives the working relationship a relaxed quality that is very pleasant and fun.

What has Oy made you even more aware of in terms of sustainability?

As a producing brand, we are always caught between consumption and sustainability. We want to have as little impact on the environment as possible while still selling products. The logical consequence would be to produce no products at all. But because we know there is demand for good bikinis, we decided to offer a maximally sustainable product and thereby push less sustainable bikinis out of the market. In the ten years that we have now been producing bikinis, we have learned an incredible amount about materials and processes. We started working with recycled materials relatively early on and tried to shorten transport routes, for example by moving production to Portugal. We are also proud to offer very high-quality bikinis that last more than just one season in terms of both design and quality.

What is most important to you at Oy?

As a brand, we want to continually inspire and lead by example, especially when it comes to sustainability. Personally, we want to do what we enjoy. With Oy, we can do both: we bring a meaningful product to the market and can stand 100% behind our work. At the same time, we want to be more than just a product and offer our customers added value by sharing our experience from bikini production and our knowledge of a sustainable lifestyle.

What are the biggest challenges?

Right now, our biggest challenge is getting the product fully produced on time. It starts with planning the collections and ordering materials. At the moment, material delivery times are extremely long. This is already forcing us to begin planning the 2024 collections now. In addition, demand for nearby production facilities in Europe has risen enormously, meaning that the order books of production companies in Portugal are already full for a long period of time. This makes it very difficult for smaller brands in particular to hold their ground and secure a production slot in time. We are incredibly grateful that we have a very good and long-standing relationship with our sewing workshop in Portugal, which means the production of our bikinis is secured.