On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Lora Nekrasova, the founder of the Bibliotheque brand, with her husband and child, as well as the entire brand team, were in Kharkiv, 30 kilometers from the Russian border. They woke up to loud explosions they had never heard before in their lives. 
In this story, we will not describe all the horrors of the war in Ukraine, which our foreign customers know from the news and Ukrainians have experienced personally, but we will tell the story of mutual support between two women, Laura and Fernanda, and two countries - Ukraine and Italy.
On 23 February, the oil compositions for the I Am collection were completely ready, and the courier was supposed to come to the perfumer Fernanda Russo in Florence to take them to Ukraine, where they were to be mixed with an alcohol base and bottled. However, everything went completely differently.
‘My husband, child, and I woke up to loud explosions on 24 February at 5 am. Our window on the 21st floor has a beautiful view of the forest, clouds, and a small church on a lawn in the forest, but that day we only saw strong explosions on the horizon and felt the house shaking. We quickly threw our stuff into our suitcases and jumped into the car and drove away from the war and death,’ Laura says.
Photo: Ihor Terekhov
The entire Bibliotheque production was also located in Kharkiv, but from the first days the city was heavily shelled, and no one was sure what would happen tomorrow or whether Ukraine would be able to survive.
‘When we ended up in Chernivtsi, 1,000 kilometers from home, with no business, no income, and no home, I asked myself three questions: ‘Who am I? What do I have to not give up on myself and continue living? What can help thousands of other Ukrainian women?’ It was like a second wind opened up for me. We worked seven days a week to design a new collection, made a website, and got a place at one of the world's largest exhibitions, Cosmoprof Bologna, to show Ukraine and Ukrainians from a new side unknown to the world. None of this would have been possible without Fernanda's tremendous support.’
Laura and Fernanda met in Florence in 2020. Already then, they agreed to work together on a new, special collection for the brand, called I am. By 2022, they had already become good friends.
‘When I found out about the war, I called Laura and offered my help. By accident, I hadn't sent the ready-made compositions for the first release of fragrances to Ukraine, so the only tangible things Lara had left were the compositions of these eight fragrances,’ Fernanda recalls.
The preserved fragrance compositions for the entire collection, which only needed to be added to the alcohol base and sealed in bottles, became the team's hope that the company would continue to live. This accident, which the founders perceived as destiny, gave the team the strength to move on and look for ways to develop the brand despite the tragic events around them and the crisis in all sectors of the economy.
‘Laura said it was a great value, and a few weeks later she called and said she wanted to present the fragrances at an exhibition in Bologna, which was to take place at the end of April. She needed help with the launch of the fragrances in Italy, as the logistics with Ukraine were not functioning properly. ‘They're crazy,’ I thought. There was no time for this, it would take a lot of money because participation in such exhibitions is quite expensive. I thought they would change their minds after considering the pros and cons,’ Fernanda continues.
But, of course, the Ukrainian team went to the exhibition. It was still impossible to produce perfumes and bottle them in Ukraine because the equipment had not been evacuated, and there was no certainty that there was at least one completely safe Ukrainian city.
There is nothing to stop two women who have a plan,” we are confident.
‘The pace at which they started work was like an avalanche. Everything was done precisely and on time. I'm still amazed that three girls - Laura, Zhenya, and Yulia - traveled two thousand kilometers, assembled some furniture for the exhibition on their own, and spent the night before the presentation packing the bottles. It was at that moment that I realized they would succeed.’
The first presentation of the I Am collection took place at the global exhibition Cosmoprof Bologna. In 2022, it was attended by 250,000 people and involved 3,000 brands. The women of the Bibliotheque team talked about fragrances at their booth, observing which states attracted visitors the most. They noticed that men are also interested in fragrances, and people are closest to those perfumes whose states they want to achieve. If at that particular moment, they want to be feminine, they choose the fragrance ‘I am Tender’. If they want to be seductive, they choose I Am Sensual. At the Cosmoprof Bologna exhibition, the most popular perfume was naturally ‘I am Winner’.
Due to the military situation in Ukraine, the first batch of the collection was fully produced in Italy, in Florence. Essential compositions were collected there. It was there that they were combined with an alcohol base and bottled.
We have already produced the second batch in Chernivtsi. Production from Kharkiv was moved to a safer city in western Ukraine, and part of the team moved there as well. With the success of the Ukrainian army, Kharkiv is becoming safer and perhaps the company will return to its hometown again, but for now, we are writing: ‘Originally from Kharkiv, made in Chernivtsi’.
The friendship between Laura and Fernanda and the support that Fernanda offered and gave to the brand will never be forgotten. Good intentions and a big heart were as visible and clear at that time as a precious perfume in a glass bottle.
