Prague friends built Oneday fashion brand from hostess uniforms

Alžběta Svobodová and Martina Skalická started out a decade ago sewing staff uniforms and promotional costumes for hostesses, and today their Czech clothing brand Oneday is in the middle of a genuine boom: at one point more than four thousand women queued for a single dress, the Freya model, and the company's annual turnover has doubled to 11 million crowns.

The two friends met at a design college in Prague — one studying art history, the other architecture — but both were drawn to fabric and sewing. In 2015 they took on their first paid commissions, and in 2016 they founded the Oneday brand around the philosophy “one day, all day, every day” — clothes not for a special occasion, but for an ordinary day. They showed their first original collection at Prague's Kvalitář gallery: minimalist silhouettes in black, white and red.

The company grew without a clear business plan — “it grew out of what we knew how to do and what we ourselves were missing in ready-made clothing,” says Skalická. Covid and the economic uncertainty that followed the war in Ukraine hit sales hard: in a crisis, people's first move is to cut non-essential purchases from the budget, notes Svobodová.

About three years ago business picked up again — largely because the founders grew bolder with colour and shape, while giving up the chase after fashion seasons. Instead of dozens of new models, they prefer to perfect a handful of successful cuts, work that sometimes takes more than a year.

When they could no longer keep up with orders on their own, Oneday began working with a Czech sewing workshop, using deadstock fabric and producing small batches. Over ten years the founders heard thousands of customer requests — no bra needed, hide the stomach, allow for a larger bust — and all that experience went into the Freya model, sewn from leftover pale-yellow fabric that had been gathering dust in the warehouse since before the pandemic. A dress conceived simply as just another comfortable, feminine everyday option unexpectedly became a viral hit and the brand's main driver of growth.