In a country with the highest top model per capita ratio in the world, where the Prime Minister is mostly known for his brightly colored socks and the President is never seen without a bowtie, nothing surprises me anymore – at least fashion-wise. This being said, everything was different when I first moved to Estonia. All I knew before coming here was that 50% of Estonia is covered in trees. Nobody ever mentioned an obsession with bowties.

So I was quite confused when I started school last September and saw a couple of people wearing bowties every single day. Was there a secret uniform I didn’t know of? Frankly, I didn’t care. All I wanted to know was exactly where these amazingly stylish pieces came from. Why they are so special, you ask? They are wooden - because when in Estonia, you should take advantage of all the trees – and oh-so pretty.

Well, it turned out that one of my fellow Student Council members and friend, Kristjan Oro, is the source of this amazingness. About a year ago he co-founded his own company – ŠIKK – with his best friend, Ats Jõgi, dedicated to crafting wooden bowties in all sorts of shapes. After six months of rummaging through his magic box of bowties over and over again and giving everybody the same present for Christmas – you guessed it, ŠIKK bowties – it was long overdue to sit down with Kristjan and talk about his startup journey, the biggest struggles of being an entrepreneur and his plans for the future.

Photo: ŠIKK

The two major things I learned during our extremely serious chat were these: When in business with your best friend of eight years, yell at each other every now and again. Helps you clear the air. And stay sane. And friends, for that matter. It seems to work for Kristjan and Ats. After a year of yelling at each other, they are still best friends. They even like to spend their free time together – if they have any. Which leads me to the second thing Kristjan taught me, this being how to manage your time and simultaneously not to get completely confused by to-do lists. (Something I really need to work on.) I quite like his system: A to do list classified from A – if you don’t do this immediately, you’re fucked to D – tell somebody else to do it.

But all jokes aside, I am sure that these two have a bright future ahead. I am not just saying this because Kristjan is my friend. I truly believe it. Because their bowties are just too cool not to love them. And because the personal touch the products come with is amazing in this impersonal world. And because in just one year, they managed to be featured in the Estonian Song Contest and the Estonian version of “Got Talent”, thus making ŠIKK bowties something that is worn by stars. Next challenge: The President.

For everybody who really wants one of these unique accessories now, it is your lucky week. ŠIKK will be launching their brand new online store in the next couple of days and they are shipping anywhere in this world. But you should be quick; I am planning to fill up my suitcase with them. Can’t guarantee there will be any left when I’m done shopping.

Show them the flying floordrobe love and check out ŠIKK's Facebook page and its Instagram account to see more pretty photos of the bowties and to be up to date on the exciting new product that will be launched very soon!

Photo: www.facebook.com/sikkdesign/

Have a great week, everybody!

xx, Kathi