This is Hlib and Ann

We created Куй.

For us, Куй is a way to turn our imagination into things you can wear. Sometimes it starts with a funny Ukrainian word, phrase, or image pushed to the point of absurdity. Other times it’s simply a good illustration that doesn’t need a punchline.

We feel at home with people who don’t ask trends what they’re supposed to like. People who can wear something a little absurd, explain nothing, and still be entirely themselves.

A very deep soul can live behind a very silly T-shirt.

The two don’t cancel each other out.

Hlib

Before Куй, Hlib took the long route—roughly everything you can see in the collage above.

Music was always the main obsession.

He spent several years in Hanoi, DJing techno and house, organising underground parties and raves, and working on a festival with people from around the world.

Back in Ukraine came marketing, photography, video, music, design—and the persistent urge to learn more.

Around 2024, KYII appeared. Hlib began using Midjourney as one tool among many, then refining the images by hand in Photoshop until they became finished designs.

Clothing turned out to be another canvas: a place to combine images, words, humour, music, photography, and all the other creative chaos that had been accumulating for years.

Ann

Ann has been drawing for about as long as she can remember.

At around six, she realised two things: drawing felt incredible, and she seemed to be pretty good at it.

Some of that love came from her dad, a self-taught artist who paints beautiful, realistic landscapes.

Little Ann would look at them and think:
When I grow up, I’ll paint like that too.

Eventually, she realised that carefully rendering every single leaf was not her story at all. She would rather grab some paint, turn on punk or techno, and see what happens when she stops trying to control everything for a few hours.

Painting became less about making something beautiful and more about pulling something from inside herself into the open. An emotion. A thought. Anxiety. Anger. Fascination. A strange image that appeared in her head from nowhere.

Sometimes the result is beautiful. Sometimes it’s strange.

That is exactly the point.

For Ann, creativity is a place where you don’t have to know the right answer straight away.

And then we met

Ann was living in Lviv and soon moved to Kyiv. We quickly found a lot in common: art, music, nature, philosophy, unusual ideas, and things that refuse to fit neatly into any normal category.

Hlib already had an American T-shirt brand called KYII.

In our conversations we kept encountering funny Ukrainian words, slang, surzhyk—the hybrid street language you hear in everyday life—familiar expressions, and folk memes.

Sometimes one of us said something. Sometimes it came from friends or strangers. We would look at each other and think:

That would make a very funny T-shirt.

The Ukrainian language offers an endless supply of vivid images, but hardly anyone seemed interested in turning them into fully realised designs.

During a winter walk around the neighbourhood, those conversations started to sound like an actual brand idea.

At first, we considered calling it Кий—Kyi—as a Ukrainian counterpart to KYII. The two brands were always meant to be related: one logo, the same spirit, and the possibility of merging one day.

Then Куй arrived.

In Ukrainian, куй is a command: forge it. The name was stronger, more alive, and much closer to what we wanted to create.

Absurd? Yes. Careless? Never.

We spent a long time choosing fabric, checking seams, and watching how each piece fit and behaved after washing. The image matters, but so does how the garment feels in your hands and lives on your body.

Our prints use water-based inks. They sink into the fabric instead of sitting on top like a rubber film, and they don’t crack after a few washes.

We take quality very seriously. Timing, however, was another story. We spent so long getting the first run right that we launched the brand in the middle of winter.

Куй is no longer just the two of us

Hlib created three of the first four designs using Midjourney and Photoshop. Ann helped with colour and choosing Pantone references for print.

The fourth design—the Trip long sleeve—was created by artist Khrystyna Izhakevych.

That collaboration taught us something important: Куй shouldn’t remain only our personal canvas.

And it shouldn’t be a brand only about Ukrainian phrases and wordplay. Humour is one part of Куй. The other is art for its own sake—good illustration and pieces you would want to wear even without a joke.

So we keep working with artists. Two more creators are already working on the next drop. Meanwhile, Ann is imagining what comes after T-shirts: bags, trousers, new silhouettes, and complete looks.

We want Куй to become a place where different creators can make something of their own—strange, honest, and genuinely good.

Like home

When someone wears Куй, we want them to feel at home.

No pretending to be someone else, chasing trends, or explaining why they like what they like.

We make Куй with love and sincerity. More slowly than we would sometimes like. Not always right on the first attempt. But with great care for what ultimately reaches another person.

If you feel that too, we’re probably on the same wavelength.

And if you’re an artist, designer, photographer, filmmaker, or any other kind of creator who wants to make something together, write to us.

Let’s forge something together.

Collaborate with us