Sisters in pursuit of creating perfect bikini
Melis Alphan Hürriyet Daily News
Oye has been featured in numerous fashion and travel magazines and has been the choice of swimwear by many celebrities.
Luxury swimwear brand Oye (Open Your Eyes) was founded by twins Ayça and Zeynep Sadıkoğlu in 2007.Ayça is the creative force behind the label. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a double major in Art History and Film and Media Studies. She worked at Merchant Ivory in New York City upon graduation, before returning to Istanbul to co-found Oye with Zeynep. Zeynep graduated from Haverford College with a major in Economics and a minor in Italian.
The inspiration for building a brand came to them on a family trip to India, after which Ayça and Zeynep decided to quit their jobs and start a swimwear company.
Since childhood, they have always wanted to work together, but they did not have a specific idea in mind. When in India, they fell in love with the semi-precious stones and the colors of the country. The trip was in May and they were having trouble finding the perfect bikini. At that moment, they decided to use the stones on the bathing suits.
When they returned from the trip, they quickly started on their first collection. That first collection was bought by Beymen, one of the most prestigious department stores in Turkey.
After having Beymen as a sales point, they have quickly entered the leading stores worldwide. They focused on sales and marketing outside Turkey at first.
Oye has a presence in seven countries, including the U.S. and the UK. It is also being sold at prestigious resorts like the Four Seasons and Aman. Its presence in the Middle East is limited to Dubai at the moment, but the twins are focusing on increasing sales points throughout the Middle East this coming season.
Oye has been featured in numerous fashion and travel magazines in the United States, including Vogue, Elle, CondeNast Traveler, GQ, Women’s Health and Sports Illustrated, and has been the choice of swimwear by celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton, Nicole Scherzinger and Kourtney Kardashian since 2007.
Oye is the first and only Turkish swimwear brand to be featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue twice.
One of the major changes Oye has been through this year was founding an atelier behind their showroom in Gumuşsuyu, Istanbul. This gave Ayça and Zeynep more freedom and flexibility in fulfilling their orders. Working with different ateliers has always caused them problems with the delivery times.
Collection to be sold in stores
Ayça and Zeynep this year for the first time joined forces with Roman, a leading textiles company based in Turkey. Oye for Roman collection will be sold in May at the Roman stores in Turkey. The collection consists of 12 bathing suits that match and reflect Roman’s own collection. This will be Roman’s first collaboration with a swimwear brand. Oye is proud to set up its first e-commerce site this year. It ships worldwide from www.oyeswimwear.com.
