So much is said about causes, stories behind the brands. Many of them are hidden, right there, behind. This time we wanted to show you a little of what we do. Our aim is that good reaches everyone. We have done several publications alluding to CCC and Cathy, but nothing like a report to bring you a little closer to this reality. Often the information that comes to us is conditioned, even by ourselves, it is easier to forget, to pretend that it does not exist. The confrontation with reality can be very hard, but also very rewarding when you get to work and you can really help make the world a fairer and better place for everyone. (This report was made in 2012, things have already changed in the meantime. We will soon post the current video).

If we invest in love, something good will happen!

Since I was little, I never liked fary tale stories, I liked real ones, they were the only ones that made me dream. Perhaps the dreaming girl was not so empirical and her dreams were the starting point for creating her reality. Even today, I only like what is real, even if it is hard, that brings suffering, it is reality, it is life happening. Stories of princesses never made me believe in a different reality or idealize a life of "glitter and pink", I was never that girl, I think I never wore pink... I rescued animals from the street and suffered more than my parents would like, but it was like that, I used to love to sit at the grown-up table and enter Africa through the words of my grandmother Helena and my father Luís. Wasn’t always beautiful stories, because there was always hunger, misery, social imbalances and this is perhaps my greatest connection to Africa, this confrontation with a reality that I need to want to jump into those stories and be part of those scenarios.

After more than 30 years, here I am creating another collection based on reality, in a part of my life. I thought I could only do it, if I could contribute in any way to help Africa, but I didn't know where to start and I asked for help from a friend who deals with organisations dedicated to supporting people every day. It was this friend who introduced me to Cathy and it was at that very moment that I realised that this was the NGO that was going to receive our help. You can see more information about this NGO here: http://www.confidentchildren.org/

Maybe BYOU is my story, my evolution told in clothes and maybe Cathy was destined to be introduced to me to help me jump into a scenario, which is as hard as it is inspiring and beautiful. For the collection, I chose the colours that Africa reminds me of: Terracotta are the memories I have of the smell of wet earth; The blue of a distant sea; The transparency of a water green, a water that is scarce; The dry green of vegetation; The cream of the sands and the earth; The color of dawn and dusk; And the sparkles that, after all, I always choose to have in my collections. I see that they are a representation of the beauty that sparks in each one of us. They are the sun and the moon of this scenario.

This was the introduction I chose for this new collection, long before what happened and we are living an era of uncertainty, of pain, but also of love.

Everything that I had planned for the photo shoot could not happen, it was something that would put BYOU on a level above what it has done so far, but, given the circumstances and the sustainability of the business, we adapted. The human being is like that, he adapts because in addition to needing to maintain himself, he wants and needs to continue to dream and be happy.

What I want now is to send love to each one of you and that our help, even if little, will reach Uganda, because Africa will suffer much more than we do in this huge pandemic and all aid will be few.

Thank you all for being on this side.
P.S. The names of the pieces are names of African lands.

With love,
Patricia Gouveia

Sequins Playsuit