Our Gyre family
Today I just wanted to say big "THANK YOU" to each and everyone of you supporting our growing brand. There are quite a number of new people here, so I though it would be a good idea to reintroduce, what Gyre is all about...
We are Elena and Pete, we have three children - eleven year old Nikki, two year old Abby and one year old Brucie. To complement our range of children we have Chihuahua - Peanut and Jack Russell - Ella (we usually call her 'Pig-russell' by way of her eating habits and belly size which is ultimately our fault).
I am Russian and Pete is a kiwi, and we met here in Australia, fell in love and love living our lives together (even more so on the odd occasion when our toddlers are letting us talk to each other :) )
At the beginning of 2020 we decided to take a leap and drop everything, leaving behind in NSW and moving to Perth, looking for a calmer and more family friendly lifestyle. It has been a crazy journey, but we already feel like it was worth it and we absolutely love discovering this beautiful city and all beaches it has to offer. Especially now with restrictions easing (knock on wood), that we have gotten some freedom back here in WA.
Being an absolute lover of fashion from my early days, I loved the artform of dressmaking and design. As a little girl I used to be mesmerized by my mum taking a plain piece of fabric and turning it into a beautiful dress fit for a ‘princess’. As I was born in USSR, where we didn't have imported goods and everyone had to wear the same looking clothes made in the same cookie cutter factory, my yearning for self-expression was born, understanding in my childhood it was an absolute treat for a little girl to have a gorgeous outfit made for me only.
Before coming over to beautiful Sydney - Australia, I worked for Fashion TV channel looking after special projects like visiting international Fashion weeks, doing interviews with designers, organizing events etc etc. In contrast since starting our small family here in Aussie, I wanted to cross over and create fashion of my own and nurture my creative side, I started simply sewing garments myself. Another part of the for starting to design and create was that after two pregnancies in a short period of time, I gained quite a bit of weight and all my old clothes didn’t fit me anymore and it was hard to find the right size for me at retail outlets. My bust size was different to my bottoms size and needed this extra support too. I started with making dresses, coats etc for myself, and moved into swimwear design looking to find a perfect shape that would flatter and support my now tired “post-baby” body. Eventually I started getting more and more interest in my swimwear from friends and their friends – women who struggled to find the same combination of perfect fit, decent support and a flattering cut in a bikini.
Coming from my fashion background, I knew too much about the ugly side of this industry too. Being the 2nd biggest polluting industry and having a reputation for being cruel to the garment workers, I wanted to make my own passion and business as sustainable as possible. So I started looking into different fabrics available on the market and came across Econyl – an Italian company who makes silky soft swimwear fabrics out of recycled ocean waste, and it just seemed the right way to go forward with Gyre.
Thanks for reading so far, and having an interest in our creation of Gyre; ultimately as the journey has evolved, and us with it, I have become more comfortable with the idea that ‘perfection exists in our imperfections’; we are all unique, beautiful and that our happiness is tied in some part to being at peace (and loving) your one and only body and how much that truism is a struggle and a goal for all of us.
Thank you for supporting Gyre, and a wise man once said ‘from little things big things grow’, we look forward to you growing with us as Chic, Environmentally Conscious and Body Proud women.
Elena.